Avatar: Synergy
by AvatarSen
Summary: When Korra passes, a new foe wielding the long-forgotten power of Energybending wipes out the White Lotus and threatens all who would support the next Avatar. Born into a world that fears the Energybender more than it respects the Avatar, the new Avatar, Sen, must master the four elements in secret, and eventually uncover the mysteries of Energybending.
1. Chapter 1

Book 1: Energy

Chapter 1: Culling the Lotus

The Grand Lotus shuffled his papers around on the podium once more. The preparation was taking longer than he'd expected, and his speech would have to be delayed.

Problems like this were to be expected, considering the scale of the endeavor. Order members were being gathered from across the globe to the new base in Ba Sing Se, so some complications were inevitable. Still, this was meant to be a climactic moment, and it shouldn't have to suffer just because some guard was late getting to his post.

After a long, awkward pause, and several re-shuffling's of his notes, a Lotus Sentry on the other side of the room gave him the all clear. The Grand Lotus gave a call to order, silencing the White Lotus agents who had begun to converse amongst themselves during the wait. They fell into silence as his voice carried out over loudspeakers across the hall.

"Order of the White Lotus," He began. "After many years, we are once again called to serve in the manner of our forebears."

Needlessly theatrical, this speech was, but the Order had been founded on ideals of poetry and beauty. They still liked to throw in a little embellishment now and then.

"With the death of Avatar Korra four years behind us, it is time to focus our efforts on the discovery and safeguarding of the new Avatar, as Avatar Aang tasked our predecessors. We have been working with the United Earth Kingdoms these past five years to gather information on all children of appropriate birthdate. A list of potential Avatar incarnates has been rigorously assembled and verified. Order Representatives will soon be dispatched to villages across the region to watch for signs of the Avatar."

The wind started to howl outside. Gusts slipped through open windows and sent a chill through the room.

"The new generation is upon us. This may seem a time of excitement and new purpose, but I urge you to carry out your duty solemnly and with dignity. The coming of a new Avatar often heralds the coming of new dangers as well. Always remember your purpose."

The wind screamed again outside, but the Order of the White Lotus screamed louder, with every member declaring their oath in unison.

"To protect the Balance," They screamed.

The wind screamed back.

With a shrieking howl and a heavy crack, the stone wall of the White Lotus assembly hall split in two, shattering to pebbles under the force of a screaming maelstrom, wind focused into a destructive hurricane. Debris and men alike were flung into the air and scattered before the storm.

Caught off-guard but not unprepared, it took little time for the White Lotus to mount a defense. Airbenders began to counter the gusting winds while earthbenders hurled heavy stones into the core of the storm, hoping to strike whatever Bender hid at the center. But as the massive stones hurtled towards their mark, the storm only took on new life. Gouts of lightning shot forth, following the trajectory of the attacking stones, striking those that launched them with burning fury. Soon the lightning strikes began to follow their marks to airbenders countering the storm, and any other who tried to halt the advance of the storm.

It thundered towards the center of the hall, catching anyone unfortunate enough to be in its path in a twisting gale, and striking those who stayed away with white-hot lightning. The Lotus did what they could, but even the attacks that managed to pierce the tornado seemed to have no effect. There were likely firebenders and waterbenders hidden within, deflecting attacks from their White Lotus counterparts.

The storm raged for a while, consuming the White Lotus who dared to stand in its way, but as the numbers of its opponents dwindled, so did the storms fury. Eventually, as the last of the Lotus acolytes fell, the howling winds faded to nothing. Only the Grand Lotus and his personal entourage stood witness to what was within.

A half dozen hooded figures, dressed in an unrecognizable uniform, but clearly marked in shades of yellow, red, green, and blue, to indicate the four elements. Then two figures in grey, one standing tall and proud, the other only a child, confused and anxious, likely no older than twelve.

"What do you want," The Grand Lotus demanded. He was in no position to demand anything, but he wouldn't falter in the face of what was undoubtedly yet another megalomaniac with a grudge against the Avatar.

"I want to make a demonstration," The tall grey figure said. His hood obscured much of his face, but a grey beard was visible beneath the hanging fabric.

His head turned subtly, scanning the room. There were four High Lotuses flanking the Grand Lotus. He raised his hands with fingers bent like claws, aligning each with one of the four Lotuses. Then with a fierce and sudden movement, he pulled his hands back.

There was a sound like howling again, but not like wind or wolf or any mortal force. It was an unnatural sound, sharp and painful to the ear. The Grand Lotus covered his ears, but it did nothing to dull the shrieking. He looked to his left, and saw the eyes of his subordinates droop as they fell into unconsciousness. The howling seemed to come from within them and around them at once.

The ones around the grey figures seemed deaf to the howling, or perhaps merely used to it. Even the child stood still as the horrendous noise tore through the air, tore through the bodies of the four High Lotuses, and eventually fell silent.

When the horrid howling stopped, the Grand Lotus finally regained his composure and stood to face his opponent. The others soon regained themselves as well, and returned to his side, for all the good they could do.

"Strike me," The hooded figure said.

The grand lotus and his companions remained motionless. There was a pause, which seemed all the more silent for the terrible noise that had come before it.

One of the High Lotus, a firebender, hesitantly eyed the child, but found his resolve soon enough. He was could create lightning in this pause, and hopefully end this before it became even worse.

He gathered his strength and composed himself, resolving the possibility of wounding the child with the necessity of striking down this attacker, balancing his cause and his motivation, the dark and light. He drew on his center of balance, drawing chi along his arm, towards his finger, to its eventual purpose. He aimed at the grey one.

Nothing.

"You will stand witness," The grey one said, staring down the silent fingertips of the Lotus. "All but you."

He looked to the Grand Lotus. The others flailed, lashing out at the grey one with futile stances and strikes, unable to connect to the elements around them.

"The world will know that this is no parlor trick or deception."

The blue and green companions of the grey one struck out, ceasing the flailing's of the Lotus by trapping them in prisons of stone and ice. The heads were left exposed, facing towards the Grand Lotus as the grey one made his approach. Forcing them to watch as he placed his hand on the Grand Lotus' chest, forced to watch as he clenched his fist as if gripping some intangible fabric.

And then they were forced to watch as the grey one pulled, drawing with him a cobalt sheet of energy, glimmering yet somehow immaterial. They watched him pull as the color faded from the Grand Lotus' eyes and the blood faded from his veins.

"This is power."

With a final pull the spectral cobalt was torn from the Grand Lotus with a brief and horrifying sound like tearing meat from a bone. He fell to the ground, hollow and lifeless. The grey one ignored the lifeless corpse he had created and turned to his captive audience.

"No questions?" He said. It was almost a joke.

He grabbed the firebender who had tried to strike him by the chin and stared into his eyes. The hooded man's face was weathered and wrinkled, but still somehow youthful, as if he had aged before his time.

"No one will shelter the Avatar," he said. His eyes met the firebenders. His pupils were gray and ragged. "No one will hide him, train him, or protect him. Or they will answer to me. The Energybender."

With a flick of his wrist, he rendered all four of his captives unconscious. They would wake eventually, to spread his word. For now, he had a moment of privacy.

"Leave us," he said to his followers. Only the child remained behind as his minions retreated into the night, vanishing forever from the ruined hall.

The young boy looked around the devastation around him, the lifeless bodies and the ruined stone. Spectators had begun to gather outside the fearsome ruins that they had created.

"This was a waste," he said. He was trying to be stoic, but his elder could sense pain behind his words.

"This was necessary," the Energybender said. "Our power isn't limitless. We have to scare them, make them afraid to support the Avatar, or he might find allies that would let him overpower us."

He paused for a moment and surveyed his hands. They hadn't been this worn down an hour ago. He had improved on the techniques he had learned from his father, who had learned from his father, but across three generations, none of their family had found a way to counteract the damage Energybending dealt to the soul. Hopefully his younger brother would be able to finish their mission before the toll consumed him as it had their father and grandfather, and would eventually consume him.

"It will fall on you to finish this, brother."

"I know," the younger brother replied. "Find the Avatar. Finish what grandfather started."

"At any cost," his older brother concluded.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Avatar

The Beaker Hall orphanage never had quite enough food for everyone. After the Harrowing of the Lotus twelve years ago, orphanages had been swarmed with a sudden surge of abandoned children as cowardly parents rid themselves of children who might one day become the Avatar. Many orphanages had been unwilling to keep the same children out of fear of the Energybender, and so the abandoned generation all came to rest in a few highly secure facilities inside cities like Ba Sing Se or Omashu.

As mealtime began, the horde of sixteen year olds ate in silence. As the world resented them, they resented each other. Everyone knew that only one person, the potential Avatar, was to blame for their condition, everyone else was suffering for no reason. It was difficult to make friends when one day you might wake up and find out your best friend was responsible for every bad thing that had ever happened to you.

Two of the orphans in the corner got into a fight over more food. The argument eventually devolved into a fistfight. If there was anything the people in charge of this orphanage were thankful for, it was that everyone was too afraid to even attempt bending. If you could bend, that meant you were more likely to be the Avatar, and people hated you even more.

The fight was broken up, and oppressive silence returned to the dining hall. This was a joyless place, quiet and drab. Children their age were meant to chat and boast and flirt with one another, but the Avatar had robbed them of that chance. There were no friends or lovers in this place; only enemies.

Then the door slammed open. The kids put their heads down by instinct. Every few months someone barged in to yell at them, and they'd learned how to deal with it. They had been suffering like this for twelve years.

The Headmaster wasn't the most caring person in the world, but he was decent enough to try and shield his wards from random attacks. He stormed down the stairs and confronted the intruder.

"Just who do you think you are, barging in here like this? You think these kids haven't put up with enough already."

"Relax," the brutish intruder said. Several of his compatriots came through the door. "We aren't going to break anyone permanently. "

Suddenly outnumbered, the Headmaster became much less protective.

"And what do you intend to do?"

"We plan on saving these kids," The bandit said sarcastically. "We find the Avatar here, we'll sell them to the Energybender, and all these kids' worries disappear."

The bandit had no idea if the Energybender actually had a bounty on the Avatars head, but if he was capable of wiping out one of the most powerful organizations in the world, he was capable of paying out for a prize as valuable as the Avatar. If nothing else, he'd get on the good side of the most powerful person in the world. He turned to address his backup.

"Club 'em," he commanded. "If their eyes start to glow, they're ours."

His compatriots started running down the lines of teenagers, slamming them with heavy clubs. A few of them bothered to resist, but most of them just took the blow and let the bandits move on. Struggling wouldn't help much. They had all given up a long time ago.

The ringleader went down the middle of the room, staring at the kids. He'd repeated this process several times with no luck. He was running out of orphanages to beat up. It was a good thing the authorities didn't care much about these kids, or they'd be in serious trouble. Movement caught the corner of his eyes, and he pointed his club at the target.

"You! Cut it out!"

The teen moving along the lines froze in his steps, trying to look innocent. A few of the people near him rolled their eyes. He had a reputation.

The bandit called him over, and Hanjo answered. He strutted over to the bandit.

"Who are you?"

"Hanjo, sir, professional orphan."

"And what are you doing?"

"Stealing fruit, mostly. I figured some of my compatriots wouldn't miss it, them being unconscious and all."

The bandit didn't have any patience for cheekiness. He raised his club.

"Wait wait wait wait wait!" Hanjo panicked and threw up his arms to defend himself. He dropped an armful of stolen fruits and berries. "I already got clubbed! No glowing eyes, see, no Avatar!"

Hanjo turned and pointed to a deep purple bruise on his forehead. The bandit lowered his club. With a heavy sigh, Hanjo ran an arm along his forehead.

His bruise got smeared. Berry juice didn't dry very fast.

The bandit slammed Hanjo in the chest with a club, knocking the wind out of him. His companions stopped to watch the beat down. The bandit struck out at Hanjo again, striking him on the arm.

With his other arm, Hanjo flicked his wrist. A brick sore out of the wall and hit the bandit on the head. Hanjo's reputation at the orphanage was as one of the few to embrace his bending rather than reject it. He figured if he had a chance to be the Avatar, he might as well be a good one.

The brick didn't do much damage to the bandit, but it gave Hanjo some room to move. He backed away from the bandit and tore loose bricks from the walls, surrounding himself with hovering stones. The bandits' friends tore themselves away from their merciless beatings and backed him up.

"You must be a real idiot," the bandit shouted.

"Not as dumb as you," Hanjo shouted back. His voice was still hoarse from the hit to the gut. "Find the Avatar by turning on the Avatar State, brilliant plan."

One of the attackers rushed forward and Hanjo hit him in the face with a brick. That halted any other attacks for now. The bandits remained motionless. The ringleader even dropped his club.

The other orphans watched in awe. They all disliked each other, and Hanjo was the least liked of all, but for now they were all united in admiration of him, except perhaps the ones he'd stolen berries from.

The Bandit ringleader flexed his arms, and bricks tore themselves from the wall in a shower of dust and pebbles. Beams of light pierced the holes in the walls and caught the airborne dust, creating spotlights throughout the orphanage. One of them fell quite dramatically on Hanjo's face.

Unfortunately, the sudden light made him blink, and bandits have a knack for capitalizing on even the smallest weaknesses. A flurry of bricks hit him in the chest, one after the other, and he lost all focus, dropping his own ammunition to the ground.

"This one seems promising," the leader said. "Hit him hard!"

The bandits fell on Hanjo, slamming him with clubs and stones. Grunts and moans of pain echoed through the dining hall.

"Come on, Avatar Hanjo," The leader taunted. "Show us some Airbending!"

"Hey, that reminds me," one of the lackey bandits chimed in. "I heard some guru fella say that Air comes from the chest, or something."

"Yeah, that's called breathing, idiot."

"No, it was a bending thing. Something about nunchukras or what you call 'em. Said airbending came from the chest."

"Sounds like a plan," the leader said. Warping stones to his will, he bound Hanjo to the wall by his arms, exposing his chest. He shattered bricks into small stones. "Let's see some air!"

One of his shattered stones struck Hanjo in the chest. When Hanjo failed to show off any airbending, he hit Hanjo in the chest again. Then again. Then a third time.

His fellow students had let go of any admiration for Hanjo and were now cowering behind upturned tables and chairs.

"It'll all be over soon," one of them, a boy named Sen muttered. "It'll all be over soon."

He was lying. He knew bandits liked to draw these things out for their own amusement. This could go on for hours if they felt like it. The authorities didn't care about these kids enough to respond in time, and no one here was strong enough to do anything about it. Hanjo was the only one who knew anything about bending.

But that was all that had to happen, wasn't it? Hanjo could deal with this, they just had to give him some time to recover. The orphan pressed his fingers against the dirt floor. Sen had always felt the connection, knew what he was capable of, but he'd denied it out of fear. He knew he was an earthbender, but he'd never practiced. But now was as good a time as any to start.

Rolling out from the cover of his table, Sen slammed his hands into the ground, opening himself to the spiritual connection he felt with the stones. A shockwave travelled out towards the bandits, and the ground underneath them churned and cracked. It put them off balance, and the bandits stopped their attack on Hanjo for a moment.

Hanjo was already unconscious. He'd taken too long to act. All he'd done was aggravate the bandits.

"There's one," the ringleader called out. "Get him too."

"No, I just wanted to," The orphan began, but couldn't bring himself to finish. "This is a mistake!"

The bandits drew in, wielding clubs and hovering stones. The ringleader let Hanjo fall to the ground as he turned all his attention, and his barrage of stones, to a new target.

"Get away!"

The first stone flew towards Sen. He put his hands forward, trying to shield himself, trying to deflect the stone, trying to do anything to stop it. The flying rock changed direction, shooting back where it had come from, striking the bandit ringleader in the eye. He fell to the ground with a shocked scream as the stone dug into his eye.

His companions spared a moment to look at their fallen leader before charging forward in a vengeful attack. They stormed the orphan with clubs high.

Sen panicked, flailing his arms and sending a scattered cloud of pebbles flying at them, slowing them only briefly and depriving him of any useful materials. The bandits closed in.

"Stop!"

With nothing left to do, the orphan threw up his hands to shelter his face with his arms. The first club hit his arm, connecting with a heavy crack.

A surge of air came from below, knocking the attacking bandits off their feet. Those few orphans who were still watching gasped in shock.

Hanjo had regained consciousness just in time to watch Sen awaken as the Avatar.

* * *

><p>9Three weeks later, the Energybender arrived. The city guards had mustered just to make the civilians feel safe, but as he walked towards the Beaker Hall, they backed away slowly and silently. The man in the grey hood walked to the door unimpeded. The Headmaster had been expecting him, but he was not a brave man and he fell to his knees nonetheless.<p>

"We didn't know, we couldn't know, and he isn't here anymore, we are so, so sorry."

"I believe you," The Energybender said. The Headmaster briefly stopped trembling.

The Energybender knelt down, until he was on level with the cowering Headmaster. With a flick of his fingers he forced the Headmaster to look at him. The Headmaster began to shake again, but even trembling eyes could make out the sharp, defined features of the man staring back at him. His eyes looked back with rugged grey irises, surrounded by unnatural grey circles on the skin.

"Tell me everything about him," The Energybender commanded, "And I will consider you innocent of the heinous crime of sheltering the Avatar."

The Headmaster began to say everything.

"He's a young man, sixteen years old, he has black hair and dark brown skin and his eyes are green. He's about five and a half feet tall and he's very scrawny. He left three weeks ago heading east, and he took another orphan named Honjo, I mean Hanjo, it was Hanjo, with him, and Hanjo was wounded so they can't have gotten far."

"You're forgetting something," The energybender said.

"What, what am I forgetting, I told you everything I know!"

"You didn't tell me his name," The Energybender hissed. He placed his hand flat on the Headmaster's chest. The Headmaster soiled himself.

"I don't know his name! I never asked! He never made trouble, never helped, I never bothered to learn his name!"

The Energybender's grey eyes glared down at the filthy Headmaster. He was a deplorable man. He briefly considered using Energybending on him as an example, but decided against it. The cost of Energybending was too high to waste on wretches like this, even though he'd found a way to prevent the damage that had destroyed his grandfather, father and brother before him.

"You are innocent," He said. The Headmaster fell to the floor in a shivering heap.

Without another word, the Energybender departed, travelling east. Crowds split as he walked, no one daring to come within arm's reach. For more than a decade they had been dreading his return, and now he walked among them. Now, he was on the hunt.

* * *

><p>They'd made their introductions on the road. His name was Sen.<p>

They'd never really noticed each other before. Hanjo did too much and Sen didn't do enough for their paths to ever cross. Nobody would have guessed that they'd be fugitives together. Hanjo had always sort of wanted to be a fugitive, but the massive bruises and possible broken ribs were putting a damper on his enthusiasm.

Sen hadn't said much since he'd told Hanjo his name. He was focused on moving, getting away from the orphanage and anyone else he might put in danger just by being around them. They had to stop at some point, though, and the setting sun was as good a reason as any. They took shelter behind a large rocky overhang, away from the main roads. Hanjo carved them a small hole in the rock to shield them from the weather, and there they stopped.

"You'll have to learn to do that too, soon," Hanjo said. They needed to start talking.

"Why?"

"Because I'm hurt," Hanjo began. "And also because you're going to have to save the world."

Sen was silent.

"Look, Avatar," Hanjo began. Sen had to get used to being called that. "Everybody back at Beaker Hall had to put up with a lot of crap, and none of it was our fault."

"It was mine."

That caught Hanjo off guard. He'd had a whole monologue ready to go and now Sen had thrown off the pacing completely.

"Not my point," Hanjo said, trying to get back on track. "The point is, sometimes things happen, and even if they're bad, you have to do the best you can with what you have, and you, Avatar, have so much more! You're the master of all four elements!"

"I can barely Earthbend!"

"Correction," Hanjo said, poking Sen in the forehead. "You can barely Earthbend _and_ Airbend! You're two kinds of amateur, which is better than just one kind."

Hanjo scooted around until he was next to Sen. He wrapped a bruised arm around his travelling companions shoulder.

"Look, you have nothing to be afraid of. I'm going to get you started on Earthbending until we find you a real master, and then one for Fire, and then Air, then Water, and suddenly you're a full avatar! Just like Korra!"

"Who's going to help me? Everyone's afraid of the Avatar!"

"I'm not," Hanjo said. Sen fell silent.

"I'm just a mediocre Earthbender, and I'm willing to help, right? There's got to be at least four Masters out there who'll help you, right?"

Sen stared at the ground. Hanjo figured he was gaining ground, and it was time to make the final push.

"I know a good place to get started on our search. I'll lead the way. You focus on bending."

"Where should I start?"

"I don't know; spell your name with rocks or something. I'm going to bed."

Then Hanjo went to bed, and Sen managed to spell half of an S, which is just a small C, before giving up.


	3. Chapter 3

Book 3: The Original Earthbenders

Travel was uneventful. The United Earth Kingdom's population was mostly clustered in large population centers, so they didn't encounter too many small villages or towns while they wandered. The meandering path through the forest kept them safe from the Energybender's search, but also meant they had to sleep in the dirt and forage for food. On the upside, removing dirt from edible roots made decent earthbending practice.

"So the way I see it, Avatar Sen, is Korra and Aang both knew Energybending too. So, if we get you to the point where you can do that whole talking to the past lives thing, you just ask Korra what to do, and bam, Howler's gone."

"Howler?"

"Some people call the Energybender that, because you know, there's a howling noise when he…when he does his thing, you know."

Sen had gotten livelier and more talkative, but it was probably best not to remind him about the Energybender's ability to rip people's souls out. Wasn't good for morale.

"So how do we get me there," Sen asked. "I tried just talking to myself, you know, 'Hey Korra', and I got nothing."

"I don't know. Spiritual stuff is not my area of expertise. I'm just spitballing ideas here."

"You're a really terrible master, you know."

"Hey, am I making you call me Guru? I'm just a guy trying to do his best."

They paused and glared at each other for a bit before continuing their walk. Sen squinted, and he could barely make out a plant he recognized and tore the soil around it out of the ground. Earthbending was pretty easy for him now that he was actually trying.

"I'm sorry Hanjo, it's just kind of hard, neither of us knowing what we have to do."

"Don't worry about it," Hanjo said. Sen tossed him a chunk of the root, and Hanjo took a bite of it. He tried to talk and eat at the same time, but the root was tough and bitter. He finished chewing before he continued.

"I figure I'll train with Earthbending same as you, and then I'll be a master. Maybe I'll learn some cool technique too."

"Yeah, Avatar teammates have a habit of doing that. You think you'll learn lavabending, or maybe invent a new type of bending?"

Hanjo grinned to himself.

"Funny you should mention that."

"What, you got a new technique in mind already?"

"No, not that. You'll see. Anyway, back to what you said earlier. You making it official? I'm part of Team Avatar?"

"I don't see why you wouldn't be."

"Awesome," Hanjo said. He'd been limping the past few weeks, but he started to take on a strut. That was a mistake, now his leg hurt like hell. He started limping again. Sen laughed at him.

The geography started to change. Less big trees, more scrub grass and small bushes. Mountains were starting to show in the distance.

"We should start turning east. Seems like we're coming up on the desert."

Trying to cross the Siwong would only end in a very dead Avatar, and that wasn't what they wanted. East would take them to the coastline, and then they could follow it north towards Zaofu.

"Makes sense. You want to head for Zaofu? The Beifongs have always liked the Avatar, they'll probably help us."

"We might stop there, but I don't think we should go to the Beifongs. Howler's probably on our tail, and he'd be watching them."

Sen nodded. The Beifongs and the Metal Clan were powerful, but the Energybender had proven his power as well. It would be better to avoid his attention entirely than risk a confrontation they might lose.

"So where are we going, then? You seem to have a destination in mind."

"Well, long term, I figure we head for Republic City and Korra's Portal. We find an Earthbending master on the way, and then we go into the Spirit World to help you do the talking-to-Korra stuff. After that, we can come out either the North or South spirit portals to throw the Energybender off our tail."

"That's a good plan," Sen said.

"I've been thinking about what I'd do if I was the Avatar for a long time," Hanjo admitted. "Although you weren't part of the plan."

"Well my plan for being the Avatar was not being the Avatar," Sen said. "So we've both been thrown off."

They turned east and kept moving. The trees started to come back, and the soil got softer underfoot over hours of walking. As days went on the terrain shifted again, gradually becoming rockier and more mountainous.

"This is going to be a problem," Hanjo said.

"How do you figure?"

"How many plants grow on mountains? We can't climb over them if we rely on foraging. We'll have to go around, or stop at a town and get supplies before we make the climb."

"If we stop in a town that could put the Energybender on our tail."

"Which is why this is going to be a problem," Hanjo restated. "But honestly, I think we should risk it. I know I can't be the only one getting sick of roots. Finding a town would let us get some real food."

"We find berries now and then," Sen argued.

"Not to mention we could get a map, and if we keep anyone from realizing you're the Avatar, we might be able to score some transportation."

"We've got feet," Sen argued.

"You really don't want to go to a city, do you?"

Sen shook his head.

"Well too bad," Hanjo shot back, grabbing Sen by the wrist and dragging him away from the mountains. "Good Avatar's listen to their Team, and as I represent all of Team Avatar, your team votes find a town."

"When I talk to Korra I'm going to ask her if you can fire someone from Team Avatar," Sen mumbled. Hanjo laughed at him.

Hanjo led the way to what his gut told him was the direction of a town. They didn't find one, but they did find a road, and roads usually led to towns, so it was just as good.

Hanjo led the way down the trail of upturned soil, occasionally flicking a pebble back at Sen to test his reflexes and his earthbending abilities. Sen deflected them all easily. Eventually Hanjo decided it was time for a bigger test.

"Alright Avatar, let's see your progress," Hanjo declared, stopping suddenly. Sen came to a halt behind him, sighing. "Before we reach whatever town we're headed for, I want you to be able to lift a boulder as big as me! Get started!"

Sen shrugged and turned his attention to the ground. He was actually fairly confident in his Earthbending, despite his lack of practice. It was coming naturally to him.

With a stomp of his foot and a sweeping pull of his arm, a large chunk of earth tore itself free of the ground and began to hover in the air. It was slow going and unsteady, but it was definitely moving. Sen reached out with his other arm, twisting it in the air, and the clod of soil started to stabilize and rose steadily from the ground.

"Alright! Now move it towards me for a size comparison."

"Why don't you just walk over there?"

"Learning experience," Hanjo declared. Sen grunted.

With a gentle sweep of his arms he commanded the earth to move left. When Hanjo was satisfied with his progress, he took a step or two towards it, sparing Sen the effort of moving it further. Hanjo examined the rock to see if it met his criteria.

"It's a little shorter than me," he said skeptically. "But I suppose it's wider around, so I'll give it to you. Good work, Avatar!"

Sen exhaled heavily as he let the stone drop. That wasn't as easy as he thought it would be. Apparently being the Avatar wasn't a free pass to bending talent.

"You've made really good progress considering you couldn't bend at all a week ago," Hanjo reminded him. "Don't be worried if it's a little challenging."

Sen wasn't exactly proud, but something about Hanjo's tone felt condescending. He decided to level the playing field.

"Let's see you do the same thing," He challenged.

Hanjo thought about it for a moment. He examined the rock that Sen had finished moving and rubbed his chin.

"Alright," He said. "I guess it's not fair for me to boss you around if I can't do it."

That's all Sen wanted to hear. He sat down and watched while Hanjo readied himself to match Sen's feat of earthbending.

"Keep in mind I'm injured, alright? Don't hold it against me if I screw up."

"Not a problem."

Hanjo braced himself and imitated Sen's motions, focusing on the rock. Things started to shake, but not the rock. Hanjo looked around.

"Did I do that?"

The ground shook again. It definitely wasn't Hanjo. Sen stood up and looked around.

"Maybe there's a railway nearby?"

The rumble stopped and started again. Hanjo shook his head.

"Train's don't stop and start like that," He said. "It's got to be something else."

The rumbling started again, this time even louder and more intense. Sen looked at the ground. They were still on the road, standing in the middle of the dirt path. He looked up and down the path. The rumbling had gone on without stopping for an unusually long time.

Looking down the path, Sen finally realized what was going on. He grabbed Hanjo by the collar and dragged him to the side, towards the tree line.

"This isn't a road!"

Hanjo wasn't able to question what it was for quite a while, until Sen had finally stopped choking him by dragging him by the collar. Once they were clear of the not-road, Hanjo finally got a chance to breath and ask what the heck was going on.

"What the heck is-"

He didn't actually get the chance to ask what the heck was going on, because before he finished asking, the heck that was going on burst out of the ground. A gopherlion tore itself out of the ground, crawling along the dirt path that its tunneling created. Its fur was mangy and scratched, showing that it had been in combat lately. It sniffed the ground where Sen and Hanjo had been walking.

"Oh, that's what's going on," Hanjo said. Sen shushed him.

The gopherlions mane shuffled as it sniffed and huffed at the ground. Eventually its nose reached the stone that Sen had been moving, and its head took a sudden turn towards the tree that Sen and Hanjo were hiding behind.

"Oh crud, run!"

Sen grabbed Hanjo by the collar again, gagging him once more.

"What are you doing," Hanjo coughed. "We can't fight a gopherlion!"

"Just start Earthbending," Sen ordered. "I have an idea."

Sen stomped the ground, sending a shock through the earth. The gopherlion had stopped tunneling, but the rumbling hadn't stopped.

The gopherlion caught sight of him almost immediately, and began its attack. They weren't particularly fast on land, but they were huge and they had powerful claws. If this didn't work, Sen would probably get mauled. What a way to go.

Hanjo found his courage and backed him up. He lifted the biggest stone he could and sent it flying towards the gopherlion. It was an amateurish attack, and not particularly good, but the gopherlion avoided it out of instinct. Between Sen and Hanjo, they managed to keep the Gopherlion at bay until reinforcements arrive. Gopherlions avoid rocks out of instinct because they have a natural rivalry with badgermoles.

With a final, massive rumble, intense enough to knock Sen and Hanjo off their feet, the badgermole ripped open the ground beneath the gopherlion and dove out of the ground, catching its foe on massive claws. The force of the impact carried both the massive tunneling beasts far from the pair of earthbenders and deep into the woods. Sen was more than happy to let the two of them duke it out far away from them.

"How'd you do that," Hanjo said. His eyes were wide with surprise and admiration.

"We're all earthbenders," Sen said. "I figured it would give us a hand if it knew we were in trouble."

He could hear the two beasts howling and clawing at each other in the distance. The scratches on the gopherlion had let him know the badgermole had to be near, so from there it was just a matter of letting it know where they were. Still, he was a bit surprised it had worked.

Eventually the animalistic sounds of combat slowed down and eventually stopped. Sen dared to peek out from behind the tree. He could barely make out the Badgermole through the trees. No sign of the gopherlion.

"I think it won," Sen said. "Come on. Maybe we can help it."

"Help it? It's a giant earthbending monster!"

"Gopherlions have claws too," Sen said.

Hanjo stayed behind while Sen moved back towards the clearing that they'd mistaken for a road. The badgermole was there, but it didn't much look like it had won. Its skin was torn all over, and it was lying on its side, breathing heavily. Sen walked towards its face.

The badgermoles blind eyes stared forward, ignorant of the world around. It didn't react to Sen's movements. He stomped on the ground once, making a shockwave just like his first fight with the bandit. The badgermole suddenly sprung to focus, its eyes frantically darting around. It saw Sen, but didn't focus on him, continuing its scan of the area. A circle of displaced earth showed where the gopherlion had tunneled to make its escape, but it looked past that as well.

After a while the badgermole lurched to its feet, barely able to stand, and began calling out. Sen tried to calm it down before it hurt itself even more. He knew almost nothing about badgermoles, so he tried petting it like he would a dog, avoiding the claw marks in its furry hide. That didn't work, so he decided to step back and let its panic play out.

It crawled some distance away, and then came to a halt. Sen heard shuffling and heavy breaths. Then squeaking. Badgermoles didn't seem like a squeaking animal. He decided it was time to investigate.

He stepped slowly around the wounded animal, trying to get to its face again. He heard more squeaking, growing faster and more frantic. When he finally reached the front, he saw the source.

A young badgermole, small for its kind but still nearly the same size as Sen, was stomping in circles in front of the larger badgermole, squeaking as it stomped. Every stomp sent a small shockwave through the ground.

"Oh no," Sen said. He suddenly realized what he'd done. "You came because I thought I was…"

The wounded badgermole looked at Sen, and at its child. Its breathing was slower and more ragged now. The young badgermole stopped stomping and pressed its head against its mother's cheek, letting out a low whine. Sen sighed and looked the badgermole in the eyes.

He stomped his foot once, creating a shockwave again. The badgermole felt his presence with its seismic sense. Sen stomped again. The younger badgermole also turned to look at him. He gave a final, massive stomp, heavy enough that the large badgermole lurched and the younger one was sent off balance, tumbling away from its mother. Towards Sen.

The mother gave one last heavy sigh. Sen didn't know if it was clever enough to understand his purpose, but he hoped it had. He put his hand on the young badgermoles head, trying to calm it. It worked much better than it had on the mother.

Hanjo had caught up, finally, to see what was going on. He saw Sen cuddling with a badgermole, and once again had to question what was going on in his life.

"She came to protect us because she thought I was its child," Sen said, his voice heavy with guilt. There were tears welling up in his eyes.

"Oh," Hanjo said quietly. He didn't quite know how to process this. Eventually it all caught up to him, and he knew what he had to say.

"Well, Sen, you're one step closer to being an Avatar."

Sen didn't say anything. He was focused on the badgermole he'd orphaned.

"You've got yourself an Animal Guide, the way I see it."

Sen stared at the badgermole for a while, and then smiled.

"I guess I do. What do you say, kid? Want to be an animal guide?"

The little one stomped again, creating a ripple that knocked Hanjo and Sen to the ground.

"He says yes," Sen grunted. He got off the ground and grabbed his new companion by the chin. "Let's call you Gun."

Sen started walking the way they'd been travelling before this whole incident, and Hanjo followed him. It was time for them all to move on.

"C'mon Gun! We're on the road again."

Gun grunted once, and promptly disappeared underground. Sen dove after him a little too late. He stared at the patch of displaced soil where the badgermole had been sitting.

"That was embarrassing," Hanjo mumbled.

"Well," Sen grunted. "It's not like we were friends, right? We knew him five minutes."

"Still, it seemed kind of…destined, right? Like it was meant to be."

"Let's just go on," Sen said.

The duo started walking again, and as they moved, they failed to notice a lump of shifting dirt following their heels.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Twin Lessons

Hanjo and Sen managed to find a road that wasn't the byproduct of a large predatory monster eventually, and they followed it. Carts and fellow travelers passing up and down on either side confirmed that there was some kind of major city along this road. They'd finally hit a lucky break. One traveler, a fellow named Kodo, even stuck with them for a while, despite the fact that they hadn't bathed in weeks, and answered some of their questions.

"Oh yeah, Zang's a real decent sized city. No rail lines through it, not yet, but it's still got a few trade routes left running the old ostrich-horse and buggy style."

"Have you been there often?"

"I travel back and forth for business, but I don't often spend time there. I do have a good friend that lives there, though, so I keep in touch over radio, keep up to date, you know?"

"What do they think about the Avatar situation?"

Hanjo had lied to the traveler and told him they were eighteen, but often got mistaken for sixteen. He had talked earlier about all the trouble he'd gotten into being mistaken for a possible Avatar when he wasn't, so hopefully the traveler wouldn't suspect something.

"Oh, they're of two minds. It's like that all around this area. People close to that orphanage where it started are all afraid of Howler, but everyone close to Zaofu thinks they have to help the Avatar. Towns in-between, like Zang, are all split down the middle."

Hanjo shrugged at Sen. It was better than nothing. They could play it safe in Zang long enough to get closer to Zaofu, where finding help would be easier. The fact that they knew they were heading towards definite safety for the first time in weeks was good for lifting their spirits.

"Just tell them how old you are and there should be nothing to worry about."

"Thanks for the help, stranger," Hanjo said. "My friend and I are going to take a break for lunch, care to join us?"

"No thanks, friend," Kodo said. "If you make it to Zang soon, though, I'll probably still be holed up at the inn. Look me up when you get there!"

Hanjo and Sen stopped walking and waved goodbye to their companion as he continued down the road.

"Lunchtime," Hanjo said.

"We haven't got any food," Sen reminded him.

In response, Hanjo held out a package wrapped in paper. He unraveled the string keeping it bound together and revealed a loaf of bread. He smiled smugly. Sen slapped him.

"You stole that!"

"No, it fell off of a bread tree," Hanjo said. He tore off a chunk and ate it greedily. He offered a piece to Sen as well.

"Avatar's don't steal things," Sen objected.

"Avatar's also don't die of malnutrition," Hanjo shot back. "When we get to town we'll do some honest labor and buy our next meal the right way, if that's how you want it. But you need to eat something."

Sen grunted and took the bread. It didn't even taste that good, and they had nothing to wash it down with, so it left a dry ache in his mouth. This was what karma tasted like, he thought.

With stomachs full of stolen bread, they continued on their way. The road was getting livelier now, hopefully a sign that they were getting closer to their destination. It took a few hours yet, but Zang was finally in sight. They picked up their pace as soon as they laid eyes on the town. It was a small little hamlet by any standard, but to two teenagers who'd been wandering the wilds for weeks it might as well have been Ba Sing Se. There weren't many satomobiles, even on Main Street, and most of the buildings were still classic Earth Kingdom architecture instead of the updated style, but it was civilization, and that was what mattered.

"The first thing we should do is find a place to work," Hanjo suggested. "Once we have some money, we'll stock up on food, supplies, some new clothes, and probably rent a room at the inn, I haven't slept on a bed in months!"

"We've only been on the road a few weeks," Sen said.

"I know, a bunch of bullies stole my bed back at the orphanage," Hanjo replied. "I slept on the floor."

Hanjo was suddenly distracted by something and dashed off to gaze through some storefront window. He beckoned Sen over to see it as well.

"Look at this! They've got a TV!"

A TV, or TeleVarrick, used a lot of fancy mechanical things that neither Hanjo nor Sen understood to display video images on a glass screen. While they were still somewhat rare, TeleVarrick's were becoming more and more common in households across the nations, several decades after the first model had been invented. It had been one of Varrick's last great inventions, and one of few notable creations in the past few decades. After the Earth Empire crisis, Varrick and all the other great inventors had seemed to hit a brick wall, and no one knew why. Some people thought they were afraid of creating another Spirit Cannon, others thought that Harmonic Convergence had focused the world towards spirituality rather than technology. For whatever reason, Varrick, Asami Sato, and all other innovators had simply run out of ideas. Many people found that highly suspicious.

"This is a little fuzzier than I expected," Sen said of the TeleVarrick. The image was greyed out and fuzzy looking. He supposed it was technologically impressive, but the real world looked much better than the black and white blur on the TeleVarrick's screen. It was displaying a pro-bending match, and Sen could hardly see what they were doing.

"I know, but come on, show some enthusiasm! We didn't have anything like this back at the orphanage."

A very large and imposing figure crept up behind them quite suddenly, and grabbed each of them by the shoulder.

"Now, two orphans on the run," the large man said. "Don't that sound familiar?"

Sen kept his mouth shut. Hanjo had proven fantastic at coming up with lies on the spot, so it was time for him to go to work.

"Why would it sound familiar?"

"Because the Avatar's been on the run with a friend of his for weeks now," the huge man said.

"Oh, did he have a friend," Hanjo said. "Well I can see what you're thinking now, I see your point, but I'm afraid you're looking in the wrong place. My friend and I here are orphans, yeah, and we are on the run, but for entirely different reasons, my good man. You see, with the Avatar out and about, we don't have to worry about being mistaken for him anymore! Nobody will be suspicious of us, nobody will dislike us, and we can finally go out in the world without having to worry! Or so I thought…"

Hanjo gave a dejected sigh and looked at his feet. Sen had to admit, he was really, really good at this.

"We're not even the right age for it," Hanjo continued. The real key to lying was to be consistent about it. If you're going to lie, tell everyone the same lie. As far as the world was concerned he and Sen were eighteen now.

The large man seemed to be buying it. His posture was a lot less threatening now, and he wasn't glaring quite so much.

"Alright boys, I'll tell you what. You want to work, we've got work around. Me and some of the men in town go on a patrol, you know, making sure the Avatar isn't anywhere around. That's why I caught you, because I was watching for folks like you. But because we're out and about, stuff doesn't get done around town. Talk to anyone you see doing work; ask around, I'm sure you'll find something. Tell 'em Wang sent you and you'll fit right in."

That sounded like a plan, so they nodded and thanked Wang for the advice. He shook their hands and continued his patrol. The two travelling companions conspired as soon as he turned his back.

"They know we're travelling as a duo, so I think we should split up to find work, we'll attract less attention," Sen suggested.

"Good plan," Hanjo said. "I'll cover the east side, you cover the west. Sound good? We'll meet back here at nightfall."

They shook hands and parted ways, Hanjo heading east and Sen heading west. It didn't take long for either of them to find work. Women whose husbands were out on "patrol" had plenty of work for strapping young men to do. Within a few hours both had enough spare money to afford some clean clothes and a fresh lunch, but it would take a lot more money to keep them decently supplied for the rest of the trip.

As they travelled, word started to spread about the two helpful young men, and eventually people started to actively seek Sen out. Word had gotten around that he was an earthbender, and someone had a special task for him. It was better for him if someone tracked him down anyway, he had a hard time getting around; the streets signs in this town were almost unreadable.

A girl a little older than Sen tracked him down and dragged him away from his latest small job to show him a shed without a roof and a large block of granite.

"You're an earthbender, right? I want you to take that, and make it fit that," she said, pointing at the stone block and the shed in turn.

"I don't know if I'm that good," Sen said with an awkward shrug. The girl kept batting her eyelashes at him, probably trying to flirt him out of a paycheck.

"Come on," she said, prodding him in the lower back. "Cut a few corners and lift it up, it's not hard."

"What kind of shed needs a granite roof anyway? Won't wood work just fine?"

"There's usually more Earthbenders around town, so it's easier to make things out of rock. But they're all on patrol, so it's just been sitting there. But now you can do it! So do it."

He examined the stone, trying to measure out what he thought was a good roof shape with his mind. It took him a while. He'd never been taught anything about geometry in the orphanage.

"It's not a shed, by the way," the girl said, breaking his concentration completely. "It's a house, for my pet Hog Monkey."

"You keep one of those as a pet?"

"He's not a very good pet," the girl said. "But he's mine and I love him. I just need to keep him in something very sturdy so he doesn't smash it."

Sen decided to get a little more hands on. He grabbed a nearby stone and started scratching out markings on the granite slab, drawing out the shape of a roof on it.

"My name's Kyo, by the way."

"My name is," Sen said, before pausing. Hanjo had given him an alias to use earlier, but he couldn't remember it for a moment. It came back to him quickly enough, though. "Wei."

He finished up his markings on the slab and readied himself to shape it. He'd never done anything that required actual precision yet, so he was looking forward to testing himself. He opened his palm and thrust his hand forward in a chopping motion.

The whole block went sliding backwards, nearly knocking down Kyo's fence. Sen managed to pull it back just in time. Kyo squealed in horror as it came to a halt just short of the wooden planks. Her father would kill her if she got their property damaged.

"I'm so sorry," Sen said. He'd torn up the grass all over her lawn just to save her fence. "I'm not very good at this."

"I can see that," Kyo sighed. "Have you ever had a real lesson?"

"Not really," Sen admitted. "Most people aren't willing to teach a guy around my age."

Kyo examined the swath of dirt Sen had torn into the lawn. The grass would grow back, but it would leave an ugly spot for a couple of weeks. Nothing her father would be too angry about.

"Well, I know a few earthbenders; maybe I can give you a lesson."

She pushed Sen into position in front of the slab, and then pulled and pushed his limbs until he was in a proper bending stance. She pointed at the rock.

"My uncle Kuro says that breaking rock is a lot different than moving it. You have to take something that's whole, and make it not whole. So what he says to do is imagine the parts of the rock you want to break as something you don't like, and imagine the part you want to keep as something you do like."

She got behind Sen and sat down on a barrel.

"So imagine those outside parts are something you hate," Kyo said. "And then get rid of them."

He stopped to think for a while. He focused on the bandit who'd attacked him at the orphanage, and then the Energybender, he tried the Headmaster who had let him and all his fellow orphans be abused, but he couldn't bring himself to really hate any of them. He hardly even knew anything about them, especially the Energybender.

That was what he really hated. Not knowing things. He focused on the frustration and let it out on the stone, splintering two large pieces off of it.

He hated the fact that he had no idea what he was doing as an Avatar. He didn't know who he could trust, besides Hanjo. He didn't know who his enemies were or what they wanted. His life had been boring and unremarkable before, but it had been simple. Now he had more questions than most people dealt with in a lifetime. He wanted answers.

With another heavy blow, he tore a chunk out of the granite. It was starting to take on the right shape now, but there was another huge chunk yet to be removed. Sen thought about the biggest question he had; what was he going to do next? Hanjo seemed to have a destination in mind, but did he have a plan after that? What were they going to do for the rest of their journey, across all the months and years it would take Sen to master all four elements?

Sen pushed forward with both hands, and the last chunk of stone vanished into a cloud of dust as he shattered it completely. He was left with a perfectly roof-shaped chunk of granite. He let go of his anger for a second and turned to Kyo, satisfied. She seemed to have gotten several inches taller, and she was staring wide-eyed at his feet.

Sen looked down. He was standing in a small crater, apparently of his own creation. He awkwardly lifted the soil back into place and shrugged at Kyo.

"Sorry," he said.

"You got pretty intense there," Kyo said. "Are you alright?"

"I was just thinking," Sen explained. "About the Avatar, mostly. I've had to go through a lot because of him."

"Oh."

Kyo glanced over at the granite roof and nodded approvingly. She seemed to be looking for a change in topic.

"So, how about lifting that into place now?"

Sen nodded. He'd practiced moving heavy stones earlier, so he didn't need any special instructions for this. Kyo nodded approvingly as the rooftop slid into place.

"Perfect," she said. Sen gave her a confident thumbs up. She went into the house to retrieve Sen's payment. Her Hog Monkey slipped out the door as she entered, and bolted for his new house, paying Sen no attention. He liked it that way. Hog Monkeys were noisy, dangerous animals, and he didn't like them.

Kyo returned with a respectable amount of money, thanked Sen for his time, and sent him on his way rather abruptly. He didn't ask what her deal was, better to just move on and try to find another job to do.

One the other side of town, Hanjo was having just as much luck with work. He was doing less wandering from place to place, and more doing long term work. Right now he was helping some workers load chunks of metal onto a satomobile. They'd been at this for a few hours now.

"Where's all this metal going, by the way?"

"Rail depot down the road," one of the workers said. "They're trying to get a rail line out to the mine nearby, but the projects stalling, so for now it still comes through our town."

"But if that rail gets finished, won't you all be out of a job?"

"Yeah, we'll probably stop doing this," another worker said. He wiped the sweat off his brow. "But if a rail goes to the mine, it would come here too, so that'd make this place a lot livelier. It'd make as many jobs as it takes."

"Makes sense," Hanjo said.

He went back to work, lifting another heavy container and carrying it towards a truck. He wondered if he could try metalbending it instead. He didn't see anyone else metalbending, though, so this had to be platinum, or some other unbendable metal. It was probably a good idea to wait until he was better at earthbending to try metalbending anyway.

As time went on, Hanjo noticed people getting quieter and quieter. When he'd arrived the workers were throwing friendly banter back and forth nonstop, but over time they all stopped talking to each other. Hanjo looked around to see what could be causing this. Considering he was a fugitive on the run, anything suspicious needed to be investigated.

There was nothing particularly threatening about anyone here, but he noticed someone standing at the edge of the room that had not been there earlier. He dressed like a police officer, but there was a badge on his chest that Hanjo didn't recognize. He didn't seem to be scaring anyone, but his appearance had shut down conversation in the room.

The strange officer wandered away eventually, and conversation started back up again, confirming Hanjo's suspicions. He turned to the man he was working with, a portly fellow named Zu.

"Who was the guy in the uniform?"

"You ain't seen his kind before? Guess you're from down south, yeah?"

Hanjo nodded. Zu chuckled to himself.

"That fellow is called a Weaver," Zu explained. "After the White Lotus got torn to bits, a Minister up on the other side of Ba Sing Se created his own security force, saying he was looking out for us."

"That seems like a good thing," Hanjo said. "But I get the feeling you're going to tell me otherwise."

"Clever kid," Zu said. "The Weaver's didn't waste much time trying to ferret out Avatar supporters, saying they was keeping us all safe by making sure nobody was hiding him. A lot of people got thrown in prison for not a whole lot of reason."

Zu tossed another bundle of metal into the bed of a satomobile and grabbed another out of Hanjo's hands.

"Now, I'm not going to open my door for no Avatar if he comes knocking, but those Weavers are using people's fear against them. Nobody here likes 'em."

Hanjo made a note of that. The Weavers were going to be a problem for him in and Sen in the future. The last thing they needed was to run afoul of a Ministerial security force.

"They aren't even supposed to be outside of Minister Raisu's own borders, but Parliament doesn't care enough to stop them from accusing people willy-nilly. Still, they don't usually come this far south."

"Why not?"

"The desert, mostly," Zu continued. "And the fact that you have to go through Zaofu to avoid the desert. Weaver's tried to get the Beifongs accused of something or another a few years back, and Minister Beifong counter-accused them of framing him, won the case, ended up banning them from his city entirely. It was a real embarrassment for their club."

Zaofu was starting to sound better and better every day. Maybe they could even stop and talk with the Beifongs personally. Their family seemed to be doing a great job of keeping anti-Avatar forces out of the town, so there was a chance there'd be no Energybender sympathizers at all.

"Hey, you ever drove a Satomobile before, kid?"

"Not once, Zu," Hanjo replied.

"Then consider this a lesson. Just climb in, we leave the keys in the cab."

Zu then gave him a handy lesson in running Satomobiles. Enough to get him around the corner of a building and hand it off to a more experienced driver. The experience driving would come in handy later. Seeing as Sen probably wouldn't get his hands on a flying bison anytime soon, a satomobile would be good for transportation.

That was the last thing anyone at this establishment needed done, so Hanjo collected his payment, bid Zu goodbye, and went on to the next job, and then the next one, until it started getting dark. It was time to meet up with Sen and count the day's profits.

The two met at the location they'd agreed on early in the morning. They were exhausted and hungry, so they purchased as much food as their money would buy immediately, and then checked into a hotel room.

"This isn't all that much," Sen sighed, looking at their meager collection of supplies. "But it's enough that you can stop stealing stuff, right?"

Hanjo ignored that question and moved on.

"It'll be enough to get us to a city with a train station, at least. We can get to Zaofu within a day if we get on the right route."

"A day of walking?"

"Uh, no," Hanjo said. "It'll probably be a week at least to get to the next town, then one day on the train. Maybe I could get Zu to let us take a truck to it instead…"

"Who's Zu?"

"A friendly guy at this factory I worked at. Taught me how to drive a satomobile, and he told me about a new bad guy we have to worry about."

"Great," Sen said with a sigh. He flopped down on his bed as Hanjo explained the situation with the Weavers and Minister Raisu. Sen just shook his head and pulled the covers over himself. He was suddenly much more tired.

"At least we learned something," Hanjo said, before calling it a night.


	5. Chapter 5

Book 5: The Weaver

Sen and Hanjo awoke to a startlingly quiet city. Zang wasn't a big town, but there should be people moving and talking at a time like this. The two of them couldn't hear anything. They grabbed their supplies and hurried downstairs, trying to keep a lid on the panic bubbling inside. Nobody was on the main floor of the hotel. No clerks, no maids, no one sitting in the lobby. Since there were no witnesses now, they let themselves panic.

"What the heck is going on," Sen said. He wrapped his arms around himself. "What the heck did we do?"

"We didn't do anything," Hanjo said, slapping him on the head. "Everybody else did something! They went somewhere."

He was keeping his theories to himself for now. All he could think was that they'd been found out, Howler was on his way, and all the townspeople had run from his wrath. But that was worst case scenario. Hopefully it was just some strange misunderstanding.

"We need to get a move on."

On that Sen agreed. They barged out the door. The streets were equally empty, but there was noise now, a quiet shifting sound coming from some distance away. The duo looked at each other and nodded. They should investigate.

Silently they crept towards the source of the noise. As they got closer, it became clear that there was a large crowd having conversations about something. The whole town had gathered around something. Sen and Hanjo split up to find some of the people they'd befriended the previous day, hoping to get an explanation. Sen found Kyo and managed to squeeze through the crowd to her side. She seemed glad to see him.

"Wei! Thank goodness you're here. We're going to need earthbenders."

"What's going on? We slept through it all."

"I guess no one went looking for you because you don't live here," She explained. "But they got the whole town together this morning. The Weavers are trying to arrest someone."

Sen did not manage to hide his panic. If the Weavers were on his tail, that meant very bad things. But from what Sen had heard from Hanjo, it seemed the Weavers often accused people randomly. Hopefully this was one such case.

"What for?"

"He thinks the Avatar came through here a few days ago," Kyo said. Sen sighed in relief. "He's accused Wang of allowing him passage."

That didn't make sense. Wang was the leader of the people trying to keep the Avatar out. What evidence could the Weaver possibly present?

"You should get into the middle of the circle," Kyo suggested. "Tell people you're an Earthbender, they'll want you on the scene."

The people immediately around Sen heard Kyo and made room for Sen to move. He nodded and started moving towards the middle, pushing people aside if he had to. As he got closer, he saw a large group of grown men having a standoff with the Weaver agent, who had Wang in handcuffs. He joined them all and stared the Weaver down. After a short moment, Hanjo slipped through the crowd and joined the platoon of Earthbenders as well.

The Weaver looked at his wristwatch a few times. After about a minute had passed, he spoke to his opponents.

"If you don't disperse within a minute, I'll arrest you all on obstruction of justice."

"You got no jurisdiction here, ya pig," someone shouted.

"The security of the United Earth Kingdom transcends jurisdiction," The Weaver shouted back. "You should all be thanking me for removing this Avatar sympathizer from your midst."

"I'm telling you, I ain't no Avatar lover," Wang objected. He rattled the chains on his hand. "I lead the patrol that keeps him outta this town! I told you that seven times!"

"And yet you allow unsupervised minors matching his description to pass freely into your town," The Weaver said. He glared at Hanjo. "Isn't that right, Kon and Wei?"

Sen's heart dropped into his gut. Wang looked at the two as well, and a smile found its way to his face.

"Hey, hey, I know you two! Tell this guy how I grilled you before I let you into town, right? Let him know I mean business."

"Please do," The Weaver said.

Sen hesitated. The Weaver waved him forward.

"Don't worry, you two aren't under scrutiny. A traveler at the inn by the name of Kodo corroborated the alibi you provided to Wang."

Hanjo restrained a laugh. He patted himself on the back for being consistent in his lying. Hopefully it would be this easy to lie their way all to Republic City. He stepped forward, and Sen soon followed his example.

"Well, he stopped us from doing anything until he'd interviewed us about our past," Hanjo explained. "We explained how we couldn't possibly be related the Avatar, and only then did he let us go."

"What exactly did he ask you," The Weaver questioned. There was something very suspicious about his tone.

"Oh, he asked us where we were from-"

"You're lying," The Weaver interrupted. "Step back."

Hanjo obeyed. The Weaver turned to Sen.

"Wei, you have once chance to tell me the truth. Don't be like your companion, or the two of you will be charged with perjury."

They weren't even under oath, Sen thought to himself. But the Weaver would know a lie anyway. He'd called Hanjo out so quickly, there was only one explanation; he was a Truth-seer. He could read your heart rate to determine when you were lying. Sen would have to tell the truth, and nothing but.

"He didn't really ask us anything," Sen said. The Weaver nodded at this, and allowed him to continue. "But we told him without being asked, why we were on the move, and how old we were, and why we were here."

The Weaver nodded and looked at Wang.

"Very well," He said. "Wang is not guilty on charges of aiding and abetting the Avatar."

The whole town relaxed at once. Sen's heart finally started beating at the right pace again.

"However," The Weaver shouted. "Wei has convinced me that he is guilty of criminal negligence in his position."

"You can't do that," Wang shouted. He ran at the Weaver, but the Weaver metalbent the chains around his wrist, holding him in place by his arms. "I'm a volunteer! I can't be negligent in a job I ain't being paid for! This is just you trumping up charges!"

"He's right," Someone in the crowd shouted shouted. "You can't do this!"

The crowd tensed up again, and the earthbenders moved forward to back up Sen. The Weaver removed several plates of metal from his belt and set them hovering in the air between him and the earthbenders. Sen slammed his foot on the ground and got ready for a fight.

"Any continued earthbending will be considered hostile action! I will be forced to defend myself!"

"No one's earthbending," someone shouted.

"Then why is the earth shaking," The Weaver questioned. "Your attempt at a sneak attack will…wait."

He backed his shards of metal up, and the Earthbenders backed up as well.

"There's been some kind of misunderstanding. None of you are Earthbending. It's coming from…"

He bent down and stared at the dirt. Shaking his head, he stomped his foot on the ground, and closed his eyes as he focused on the reverberating soil. Then his eyes opened in shock. The ground split open beneath his feet and he toppled to the ground. A small badgermole popped out of the ground.

"Gun?"

The badgermole sniffed at the Weaver a few times before giving a dissatisfied huff. Gun turned around to look at the rest of the crowd, and then spotted Sen. The young beast squeaked once, and then trotted over to Sen's side happily.

"A badgermole," the Weaver said. His eyes narrowed.

"You seem to have an odd affinity with this animal," The Weaver said accusingly.

Sen tried his best to ignore Gun, but the badgermole was walking circles around him.

"We found him in the woods after his mother died," Hanjo said. "We didn't know he had followed us!"

It was close enough to the truth that the truth-seeing Weaver didn't call him out on it. Still, he stepped closer to Sen.

"You two claim to be older than the Avatar, but if I didn't know better, I'd say that creature could be an Animal Guide."

He placed his foot flat on the ground. Sen was sweating, Hanjo was looking around in a frenzy, trying to come up with a lie good enough to fool the Weaver, and Gun was still trying to get Sen to pet him.

"Tell me that you aren't the Avatar," The Weaver said.

There was a very heavy pause. Hanjo was the one to break it.

"Well, the thing about that, Mr. Weaver, you see-"

The Weaver was hit in the head with a rock.

"_Run for it_!"

A patch of shifting earth made the crowd part ways, creating a path large enough for Sen, Hanjo, and Gun to bolt down. They heard screaming behind them, and felt the ground shake as the Weaver or the earthbenders tried to attack them. Staying one step ahead of whatever was attacking them; Hanjo led the group down Main Street and away from the crowd.

They never bothered to look behind them, but it didn't take a genius to guess that the attackers wouldn't be far behind. They were two kids and a badgermole versus a dangerous professional metalbender.

"This is all your badgermoles fault!"

"His name is Gun," Sen shouted back. "And you're the one who said he was our Animal Guide!"

Hanjo managed to think for a moment and actually had something that he thought was a good idea.

"Gun! Do something guide-y! Get us out of this mess!"

He only_ thought_ it was a good idea.

"He's just a kid!"

"Appa got Aang out of all kinds of stuff, and Naga slapped an Equalist out of midair! Gun can earn his keep!"

Gun then failed to do anything of any use to anyone. Hanjo groaned, but he'd had an actual good idea in the intervening seconds. They rounded a corner, and he put his plan into action.

The Weaver followed them around a corner, and found nothing. He looked around every corner before the obvious occurred to him. It was clear to him that they'd employed the badgermoles tunneling ability to escape under the street. He tore open the ground beneath his feet and dove in after them.

Meanwhile, several feet above the ground, Hanjo had torn open the wall of one of the old stone buildings and tucked all three of them inside.

"This was a really good idea," Sen said, talking through a mouthful of badgermole fur.

Hanjo reopened the wall and let them all fall back to the ground. They bolted again, following Hanjo to wherever it was that he was headed. He led them to a factory and then hopped into the seat of one of the trucks.

"Hanjo!"

"I know I know, Avatars don't steal things," Hanjo said frantically. "But Avatars also don't die! Now come on!"

Gun hopped into the back of the truck, leaving Sen the only one on the ground. He groaned and hopped into the passenger seat.

Zu and some of the earthbenders barged through the factory door. They saw what Hanjo was doing and closed the distance, shouting at him all the while. Luckily, the factory workers always left the keys in the ignition.

"I'm really sorry about this Zu!" He shouted over his shoulder as he sped away. "You're a really nice guy!"

Zu never got to hear that last part because Hanjo was speeding away, not that it would have made him feel any better. Hanjo hit the open road and started pushing the satomobile as fast as he could make it go.

Unfortunately, the residents of Zang were much better drivers, and they caught up to him in just a few minutes.

"Sen, do something Avatar!"

"Those are innocent people, Hanjo!"

"Innocent people who are going to get us killed if they catch us," Hanjo retorted. "Just make a wall or something, so they stop following us."

Sen turned around. It would have been nice to stand in the back of the truck, but Gun was taking up half of it already and Hanjo's driving was too crappy for him to get any solid footing. Their pursuers were gaining too much ground to waste time, so Sen did everything he could think of.

He tore holes in the dirt and hurled stones behind them, but his attacks frequently missed the mark, flying wide of his target for reasons he couldn't understand. Sen turned to Hanjo.

"They're better than me at this," He screamed.

"I said do something Avatar," Hanjo said. "Make with the glowing eyes!"

"I can't do that."

A rock hit the back of the truck, giving off a loud thud. Gun let out a distressed squeal.

The other earthbenders had closed to attack distance, and they were starting to pelt the truck with stones. Sen did what he could to push them aside, but there were too many for him to stop all on his own. One of them broke the driver side mirror, sending shards of glass at Hanjo. He swerved and their pursuers gained even more ground. Then another rock hit Gun on the head. That would prove to be a mistake.

Even a young badgermole is tough enough to withstand a single rock to the head, because it's a typical playtime activity of the young ones to launch rocks at each other to prove their superiority. With that hit to the head, Gun felt his skills were being challenged. He turned around and let out a high pitched yelp at his attackers. Then he lifted a rock the size of a building out of the road.

Everyone pursuing the rogue satomobile swerved to the side as the massive stone barreled down the road. They crashed into trees or rolled into ditches, but as the stone faded backwards, it became clear there was no one left on the road behind Sen and company.

"Yes," Hanjo shouted triumphantly. "I knew he'd be a good Animal Guide!"

"Amazing, Gun!"

Sen reached into his pack and grabbed a small chunk of food, tossing it to Gun. The Badgermole ate its treat in contented silence.

"We are a great Team Avatar," Hanjo said. He relaxed a bit and started driving the satomobile with one hand, gesturing with the other. "You and me have had everything go right for us so far. It's destiny, Sen, we're going to be awesome."

Sen looked back over his shoulder. He wasn't quite as excited.

"What happens to them, though?" He looked back in the direction of Zang again. "We got out, but what happens to all the people who helped us? The Energybender is going to come for them."

Hanjo hadn't thought of that. That was a really good point. They had chased Hanjo and Sen, true, but only to try and protect themselves. He'd feel bad if they got hurt.

"You know what," Hanjo said. "I got a good feeling about it. I think everything's going to work out alright."

"I hope you're right," Sen sighed.

* * *

><p>The mob conglomerated back in town, occasionally bruised, but largely unharmed by the mass satomobile accident. They were in a panicked huddle, and the Weaver stood in the middle of them all, trying to gather testimony for his report.<p>

"Now don't worry about a thing, all appropriate action will be taken," he said reassuringly. "I'll make a full report on everything that happened here."

"About that," Zu said, speaking loud enough for the entire crowd to hear. "I had a thought."

"I'm sure you're proud of your thought, sir, but please leave this to the professionals."

"No, see, I was thinking," Zu continued. "Why should we tell anyone?"

"Sir, those two are fugitives," The Weaver said. "They've brought down the wrath of the Energybender on you all. Your only hope is to get full Ministerial protection."

"Yeah, no," Wang said. He moved into the center of the circle with Zu and the Weaver. "I think I get my friends point."

"Howler ain't going to bring any wrath on anybody," Zu explained. "If he never hears about this. We're a tiny town, why would he have one 'a his spies here?"

"And from what I'm seeing," Wang continued. "The only one filing any reports is you."

Zu cracked his knuckles.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Metal Serpents

Sen had always wanted to ride a train. There was something about watching the terrain sail by so quickly that took his mind off everything about being an Avatar. For once he could just be a teenager who was finally getting to explore the world.

Getting Gun onto the train had been a chore, but they'd found him a comfy spot in a cargo section and he'd finally relaxed. Sen and Hanjo had boarded separately, to avoid suspicion, but they'd quickly reunited on board. Their train car was very lightly populated, so they could talk fairly openly about their plans.

"I talked with the station master, this will take us right to Zaofu," Hanjo said. "I wonder if Wing and Wei still live there? I've always idolized those two. That's why I chose your alias, you know. Wei. I was going to call myself Wing but I thought that would be too suspicious."

"So I get to be your idol," Sen said, amused.

"Of course, Sen," Hanjo said. "You're the Avatar. You're _the_ idol."

"Doesn't feel like it," Sen said.

"That's just because of the Energybender, though," Hanjo explained. "When we take care of him, Sen, I'm telling you, it'll be smooth sailing. Shaking hands with world leaders, red carpet premieres of any mover you want."

"Isn't there supposed to be something about the balance of the world in there too?"

"You can fit it between the movers and the world leaders, if you want," Hanjo chuckled. "You know what I mean."

"I've got to actually do the saving the world thing at least once before I get any of that stuff," Sen explained. "Let's focus on that first, all right?"

"Deal."

Hanjo picked up some brochure that had been lying around, either left there by the train company or by a recent passenger. It was a Varrick Industries advertisement, which somehow managed to be aggressive and loud despite being made of paper. Despite all the excitement and innovation it promised, a shadow seemed to hang over every word, and Hanjo found himself re-reading the same sentences over and over again, having forgotten what he had just read. Confused, Hanjo tried to pass the pamphlet off to Sen, but he refused it.

Sen was too busy looking out the window to care about any technology. You couldn't reinvent the mountains, and they were his focus right now. It was silly of him to anthropomorphize geology, but he really admired how immovable mountains were. The same snow-covered peaks had been here as long as anyone could remember, living through every war and thousands of Avatars. It was fun to stare at them, as blurry as they were in the distance.

Something interrupted his view for a second. It looked like another train car, but that was impossible. There was only one rail here. It vanished as soon as it appeared.

Several minutes later, a group of railway employees barged into the room, looking scared. Sen rolled his eyes. Of course there was a problem.

"We ask that you all remain calm," One employee said. People immediately began not being calm. "Please move forward into the train in a slow and orderly fashion."

The party of employees slowly moved through the train car to escort people forward. They got to Sen and Hanjo soon enough.

"Can we help in any way," Sen asked. "We're both Earthbenders."

"The best thing you kids can do is move forward and help maintain order in the upper cars, if you're so willing to help. We can handle anything that happens."

An employee broke off from the pack and started leading them forward. Hanjo let his curiosity get the better of him.

"So what exactly is going on?"

"Rail Tracers," the escort said. "They use metalbending to create an artificial railing alongside ours, and rob trains without having to stop them. They generally focus on cargo containers, so I assure you you're in no personal danger."

"Aww no, Gun," Sen said.

"Gun?"

"Did any of your buddies talk about two kids trying to get a stubborn badgermole on the train?"

"That was you?"

Sen nodded. Their escort groaned.

"Have they ever abducted live cargo before?"

"Yes," the escort said. "Exotic animals like Badgermoles are especially common targets."

Sen and Hanjo immediately turned around and started walking the other way. There was no way they were going to abandon Gun after he'd gotten them out of Zang safely. He was a mess of an animal, but he was their animal. To their surprise, the escort started walking with them without question.

"You aren't going to try and stop us," Hanjo asked.

"I had a lemur when I was a kid. I know how important pets are, pal," he replied. "My name's Tserang, by the way."

"I'm Kon, and this is Wei," Hanjo said. Tserang nodded and kept moving. He even covered for the kids when they passed another employee. Sen was starting to like this guy.

"So, you seem to be familiar with the Rail Tracers," Hanjo said. "Any clues on their usual routine."

"Just one. Other metalbenders can detach their cars pretty easily. Any chance either of you are…"

"No such luck," Hanjo said. "We aren't even very good earthbenders, honestly."

"I'm not even a bender," Tserang said with a shrug.

"Well, I'm very confident in our odds," Hanjo said. Sen couldn't tell if he actually meant that.

The first cargo car was uneventful, having been left untouched, at least so far. Same with the second. The third one showed signs that it had been broken into, but no Rail Tracers.

"That's bad," Tserang said. "If there was no trouble down the line then there'd be agents here assessing the damage."

"So we're heading for trouble. Good to know."

Sen reached to the bottom of the car. Clods of dirt and small pebbles had stuck to the bottom of some crates that had been resting on the ground, and earth was in short supply on a speeding train. He'd need the ammunition. He moved forward, holding the loose stones in the palm of his hand.

The fifth car had been absolutely ransacked. Crates had been torn to bits everywhere and luggage was scattered across the area, but still no Rail Tracers. Gun was in the seventh car, which meant they were almost guaranteed to encounter trouble in the sixth. Tserang led the way.

The moment they opened the door a scream rang out. They rushed in to see a massive hole torn in the side of the train car, with train employees forming a barrier between it and any of the luggage. The Rail Tracers were finally in sight, standing just in front of the hole.

"Tserang! Why'd you bring kids here?"

"They wanted to help, and they've got something important back here."

"Well they better be metalbenders, because our last one just got thrown overboard."

Tserang shook his head. The questioning employee sighed.

"We can all end this peacefully if you just hand over a reasonable amount of valuables," one of the Rail Tracers said. "Especially whatever important thing your babysitter's talking about. Once it's worth our while, we'll leave. Deal?"

"It's a deal," Hanjo said, catching everyone off guard. All the employees looked at him like he was an idiot, but Sen just shook his head. He could see what was coming.

"I'll hand over my stuff first," Hanjo said. "And I think you'll find it more than enough. I just have to go to the next train car to get it, okay?"

"This kid's going to go far in life, see," the lead Rail Tracer said. "Alright, head on over and get your stuff. We'll see if it meets our standards."

Hanjo couldn't believe something this dumb was actually going to work. Tserang seemed to have caught on as well, because he put his hand in front of his mouth to hide a grin. The rest of the employees were out of the loop, and just kept looking back and forth in confusion.

Tserang burst out laughing as the young badgermole dove through the door and started attacking the Rail Tracers. As the bandits scrambled back to their makeshift train car, the rest of the employees finally got the joke and joined in the laughter. Gun bit one of the bandits on the rear, sending him hobbling across the cargo container, and they started laughing even harder.

When the last of the Tracers was on board their car and the whole crew faded into the distance, Gun stopped his rampage and nuzzled Sen expectantly, looking for a treat. Sen didn't have any food on him, but he did give Gun a very affectionate pat on the head, which barely managed to satisfy his ego.

The other employees started shuffling back towards the passenger cars to tell the passengers to relax. Tserang stayed behind to watch over the teenagers and their badgermole.

"Hey, what about that guy who got thrown overboard? Is he going to be okay?"

"Oh, most likely," Tserang said. "We all get taught how to fall off speeding trains. It's an occupational hazard."

"How do you keep getting employees?"

"We have really good insurance."

The three of them managed to calm the ornery badgermole and get Gun back into his resting spot in the seventh cargo car. Tserang wiped badgermole fur off of his uniform and shook hands with the kids.

"Thanks a lot, you guys," He said. "This could have gone much worse without you two and your badgermole."

"We're just glad we could help," Sen said. He really meant it. It was nice to do something right and not have to face some kind of consequences for once. Nobody but the bad guys got hurt this time. Not to mention they hadn't blown their cover at all.

"I'll put in a good word for you in the kitchen car," Tserang said. "Train food isn't very good, but free food is the best kind, right?"

"Sounds right to me," Hanjo said.

"You two should get back to your seats ASAP," Tserang advised. "We're about to come up on the Zaofu mainline, where six rail lines run side by side. It's awesome watching the cars race past, or alongside you."

Sen and Hanjo took their seats and looked out the window expectantly. Sure enough, winding metal tracks came into view, and before long a second train had pulled up alongside them. Sen pressed his face against the glass. Once the rails got closer they'd probably be able to see right through the windows of the other train car.

As they pulled up alongside the other train, Sen groaned. Some of the windows were broken. He couldn't see anyone inside.

A heavy thud came from the roof above, and with a great grinding shriek, the roof of the train car tore open. Their fellow passengers panicked and clung tightly to their seats as surges of air rushed through the vehicle. A muscular figure dropped from the ceiling, landing in the middle of the car. He started shouting over the sound of rushing wind. He struck a dramatic pose as he introduced himself.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Shai Dan," he began.

"The most dangerous Rail Tracer ever!" another passenger screamed.

"Thank you, ma'am, for continuing my introduction," Shai Dan said. "Now shut up. Please hand over your valuables. Jewelry preferred."

He pulled out a metal tin and started holding it out like a miser begging for coin. He went up and down the line of seats, stopping at every passenger, taking their jewelry before stashing it in a pouch on his belt. He even thanked them for their 'donations'. Sen didn't much like his sense of humor. When he got to Sen, he had a joke of his own prepared.

"Sorry, sir," He said meekly. "But I'm dirt broke."

Sen held up his palm, which was still covered in dirt from earlier, and displayed it to Shai Dan. The highwayman actually seemed amused.

"Oh, dirt broke, that's a good one," Shai Dan said with a chuckle. "I'll have to remember that-"

The cloud of dirt flew out of Sen's palm, striking Shai Dan in his right eye. Sen had meant to get him in both eyes, but his aim wasn't very good. Shai Dan dropped his collection tray to claw at his eyes, and Sen caught it as it fell. With a heavy swing, he slammed the metal tray into Shai Dan's chin.

Shai Dan pushed Sen away and took a few steps back to clear his eyes. When he finally regained his sight, he was no longer so amused.

"I try to play the gentleman bandit routine, I try to be charming about it," He muttered angrily. "But there's always got to be a guy like you who confuses my natural charisma for softness."

He pulled the metal tray out of Sen's hand with his bending and split it into six bladed pieces. Sen was now out of ammo and ideas.

"Now I'm going to show you all why I'm the best Rail Tracer there ever was!"

He sent a piece of metal flying at Sen. He dove behind his chair and let the bladed shard embed itself in the seat cushions. Shai Dan kept an eye on his hiding spot, waiting for him to show himself.

"Who else could pull off robbing the entire Zaofu mainline at once? No one, that's who! I'm the best there ever was, or ever will be! Give up now and I'll only toss you off the train."

"You make it sound so appealing," Sen shouted back.

"Your other option is that I tie you to the back and let the train drag you all the way to Zaofu!"

That actually did make the first option sound appealing. Sen looked for something he could use. Dirt that had gotten stuck to the bottom of someone's shoes, an errant pebble that hadn't gotten swept away, anything.

Shai Dan let another blade fly into the chair, just to prove he was still a threat. Sen ducked as he felt the blade sink deep into the cushion. Shai Dan started chuckling again, but it was a much more sinister chuckle.

Hanjo, meanwhile, was trying to play himself off as an innocent bystander. He wouldn't do Sen any good getting himself stabbed by a bandit. Better to wait for the perfect opportunity and strike then. As he observed the length of the train car, he saw his opportunity.

"Wei, now!"

Sen had absolutely nothing to do and no idea what Hanjo could possibly want him to do, so he stayed behind his chair. Shai Dan shifted his focus to Hanjo, though, and thus he ignored the train car door opening behind him. The sound of rushing air from the open ceiling disguised the sound it made as it opened, and the footsteps as a new arrival entered.

Tserang dropped a small boulder on the bandit's head, stunning him for just a second.

"Kon, Wei, I got rocks!"

Hanjo jumped out of his seat and pulled Tserang's rocks towards himself. He didn't waste any time launching them right back at Shai Dan. The new barrage managed to keep him off his feet long enough for Sen to join in the attack as well. Shai Dan made the mistake of ignoring Tserang's presence once again, and as he tried to retaliate against the teenagers, Tserang clubbed him on the head with a wrench. He fell forward and hit the ground hard.

Slamming his hands down fiercely, Shai Dan made the floor of the train car ripple, sending his attackers off balance. He pulled a fragment of the torn roof downwards, grabbing onto it with one hand and collecting his scattered loot with the other. He bent the material of the roof until he was on top of the car. Sen sent some stones flying after him, but they all flew wide of their target and went soaring into the air.

"I've still got the loot," Shai Dan bragged. He leaped to the roof of the adjacent train car and laughed at his opponents.

Sen and Tserang weren't about to lift themselves to the top of the train, but Hanjo was a little more daring. He stood on top of the largest stone Tserang had brought in and used it to propel himself to the top of the train.

Getting his footing on top of the vehicle was much more difficult than he had anticipated. The robbery had not slowed the train down at all. After toppling down a few times he finally managed to figure out his balance and chase after Shai Dan. He resisted the urge to launch rocks after his quarry. Up here he only had so much ammunition.

Shai Dan tore open the rooftops behind him, making it harder for Hanjo to give chase, but he managed. After a while, the bandit came to a dead halt and held his hands up.

"Look kid," He shouted over the roaring air. "I can respect this. You've given me a good fight, made this heist something to really brag about. But if you keep this up, I'm going to have to do something you'll regret. Turn around and I'll let you be the guy who survived Shai Dan. Keep this up-"

Shai Dan tore a piece of piping off the top of the train car and sharpened it into a spear with his bending. He flourished the makeshift spear at Hanjo.

"-and you're just another homicide charge."

Hanjo thought about all the precious stones Shai Dan would be making off with. The pouch on his belt had to have dozens of diamonds, rubies, and other gemstones in it. He shook his head.

"Alright, you can go," Hanjo said.

Shai Dan gave his worthy opponent a salute. He turned to face the makeshift train car that was his getaway, and leapt off the train.

Halfway through the jump, Shai Dan felt a tug on his waist, lost his balance completely, and nearly plummeted off the train. He managed to catch himself on the railing, but he should still be falling over. The only thing keeping him from plummeting to certain doom was his conspicuously hovering belt pouch.

"You like that," Hanjo shouted. He had his hand extended, focused on Shai Dan's belt. "I figured you'd appreciate it."

Shai Dan figured it out. He actually was impressed.

"You got me by the jewels," He said. Gemstones were just minerals, when you got down to it, and they could be bent like any other rock. Hanjo was holding him in place with his own loot.

"You can still escape if, you want," Hanjo shouted. "But you aren't going anywhere with the loot."

"This just keeps getting better and better," Shai Dan laughed. Hanjo laughed with him.

"Problem is," Shai Dan continued, suddenly taking a more sinister tone. "This is my legend, not yours. So I've got to win."

Shai Dan's spear, which he'd discarded earlier while making his escape, soared through the air at Hanjo.

Hanjo felt a heavy impact hit him from the right, spinning him around. He tugged unconsciously, and Shai Dan's belt pouch tore itself from his waist. The Rail Tracer had time to realize how stupid his whole plan was before he plummeted to the ground.

Hanjo got his bearings back. He was being pressed down by something oddly heavy. He was definitely not impaled, though, which was a good thing.

"You alright, Kon?"

Tserang was pressing Hanjo against the ground, having barely tackled him before the spear went sailing past. The odd weight wasn't coming from Tserang himself, but from a strange pair of gloves he was wearing. Tserang helped Hanjo to his feet and demonstrated his new equipment.

"Nice, huh," he said, flexing the fingers of his metal gloves. He had a matching pair of boots. "Magnetic accessories. Varrick invented them to film _The Legend of Bolin 12: Revenge of the Colossus._ Us railways guys got our hands on them later. Good for rooftop fights."

Tserang helped Hanjo back to their car. The trip was much easier with his magnetic shoes keeping them in place. Sen was relieved to see the two come back in one piece, and even more excited to see that Hanjo had recovered the stolen valuables. He handed them off to Tserang.

"I'll see these all get back to their rightful owners once we make station at Zaofu."

"Can you return mine first? It's the biggest, most expensive looking one," Hanjo joked.

"Hey, come on now," Tserang laughed. "Avatars don't steal."

Sen and Hanjo froze. Sen had really been hoping to avoid this.

"Two kids travelling with a badgermole, diving into danger just to help people? Who else could you be," He said with a smile. "Don't worry; I won't breathe a word of this to anyone."

Sen smiled back. He figured it was time for a real introduction.

"I'm Avatar Sen," He said. "This is Hanjo."

"Nice to finally meet you," Tserang said. "A lot of people have been waiting a long time for you to show up."

"They're going to have to wait a bit longer," Sen said. "I'm not even very good at Earthbending yet."

"You'll get there," Tserang assured him. "Until then, enjoy the ride."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Sword of Zaofu

Zaofu was everything they'd imagined it to be. Glittering towers soared into the sky, bridged by shifting metal walkways and crawling monorail lines. Kuvira's disassembly of the domes had opened up a new era of expansionism in the city of the Metal Clan, as the buildings poured outwards and upwards at once. Experimental architecture had changed the face of many corners of the city, but only one innovation had traveled through the whole city; the soaring skyway.

The abundance of skyscrapers had made certain commutes a bit of a pain, having to go twenty stories down and then twenty stories up again just to get to an office that was, relatively speaking, only about fifty feet away. You could look through the window of a neighboring office but take almost half an hour to get to it. The skyway's changed that. Now railings travelled along the sides of buildings, carrying mobile skyways that allowed you to walk from one skyscraper to another with ease.

"We've got to go on one of those," Sen said. Hanjo agreed.

Unlike the small community of Zang, Zaofu was too crowded for the two new arrivals to receive any special attention. Gun had tunneled himself into the ground shortly after their arrival, so there was nothing that special about the two of them now. They were free to wander the streets with impunity.

They felt like they stuck out, being two modestly dressed teenagers in a city full of men and women dressed in artistic finery and formal business wear, but all the overdressed adults were too busy with their business or pleasure to pay any attention to them. The most attention they got was someone asking them to hold an elevator.

When they finally got to one of the soaring skyways, they realized they had no idea where they were headed. They decided to wing it and hope they ended up somewhere useful. They enjoyed the ride up and down the sides of the skyscrapers, until they decided to change to another skyway. They bustled through crowds, pushing past businessmen, artists, and a young couple on a date to get to another exhilarating ride on the skyway trail.

"How long do you think we should do this?"

"I've got at least forty minutes left in me before it stops being cool," Hanjo said. He pressed his face against the glass to watch the skyscrapers soar past.

"Well, I mean, there's other stuff to do in Zaofu, isn't there?"

"Yeah, but we can do that later. I saw a _really _tall building over that way and I want to ride the skyway on that one."

The couple they had pushed past earlier stood next to them at the skyway window, apparently un-offended by the way Hanjo had barged past them. The boy was tall, wiry, and a little goofy looking, and the girl next to him was clearly out of his league. She was short, but she had very intense brown eyes that seemed to be looking at everything at once. Sen looked out the window and tried not to make a fool out of himself by staring at the pretty girl.

"If you're looking for something to do," The girl said to Hanjo. "The metalbending museum got a new piece recently. I'm sure you've heard of Sokka's sword?"

Even Sen knew about Sokka's sword, and he was clueless about the outside world. Though it had undergone long periods of obscurity, being lost on the Earth kingdom coastline before Sokka recovered it, and then left unused by the descendant of Sokka who had inherited it, the times in which it had been used were glorious indeed. Though Sokka's grandson had been too lazy to use the blade, his great-granddaughter had put it to good use fighting in the Seventh Kingdom Uprisings, using it to win several battles of the short war. She had apparently decided to gift it to the Zaofu metalbending museum, on the grounds it was connected to the meteor Toph had used to build up her metalbending school.

The attractive girl's geeky-looking boyfriend gave them directions to the museum, and said that they would probably see each other again at the museum. Hanjo and Sen paid little attention to them and bolted off to see the fancy space sword. The crowds around the building were thick, as the sword was apparently a popular new exhibit, but Hanjo and Sen managed to push through. The packed crowd got thicker as they got nearer to the sword exhibit, and they were unable to get too close to the sword. They could still see it, and that was enough for the duo.

It was not especially impressive in its appearance; except for the strangely dark color that the meteoric iron gave the blade, it was a fairly standard Jian longsword. The White Lotus emblem on the hilt still remained intact, one of the only remnants of the old order in the world after the Energybender's attack. The wrappings on the handle had been replaced several times, apparently, but everything else was still the exact same as it had been when Sokka first forged it. It had never even been sharpened; the strange alloy it was made of had an uncanny ability to hold an edge.

Hanjo caught a glimpse of the goofy-looking boy who had given them directions on the other side of the crowd, though he had somehow lost his girlfriend. The boy vanished into the crowd as quickly as he had appeared. Hanjo elbowed Sen and pointed out the sudden disappearance.

"I can barely see the sword from here," Sen objected. "How was I supposed to see that?"

Hanjo glanced at the sword's display case. It was clearly visible, though far away. he wondered why Sen couldn't see it well. His line of thought was quickly distracted by a hand on his shoulder. He quickly turned around to see the dorky boy standing behind him, having crossed the crowd at an uncanny speed.

"Told you we'd see each other," The boy said. Hanjo was a little suspicious now. This boy was not the unassuming civilian he had first appeared to be.

"What happened to the girl you were with?"

"Oh, she's out and about. I'll introduce you later. I can show you some other cool stuff, if you want."

Sen agreed to the tour before Hanjo had a chance to object. It would just create more problems now if Hanjo voiced his suspicions, so he followed along.

"My name's Canto, by the way," the boy said. He led them to a display of the metal cage that had held Toph prisoner just before she had invented metalbending. Hanjo introduced himself and Sen, using their aliases of Kon and Wei. Canto shook their hands and continued on his seemingly friendly tour. The meteor that Korra had used to become the first metalbending avatar, and the chain she had used in her later battle with Zaheer, were the primary draws of the exhibit focused on Korra, the first metalbending Avatar. Sen felt a strange surge of recognition whenever he looked at the history of Korra laid out before him.

After leading them through the interesting bits of history, Canto took them down to the more abandoned sections of the museum. They stopped in front of a large model that ranked metals by how easy they were to metalbend. The hardest were aluminum and platinum, along with precious metals like gold and silver. At the bottom rung you had unrefined iron, and a whole spectrum of metals in between.

"This one's a bit outdated," Canto admitted. "Nowadays they can refine iron so well it can barely be bent. There's no impurities unless you deliberately leave them in."

It was, technically, possible to bend completely purified metal, but there were very few instances of it being done, and those few times were in very isolated, calm conditions. It was unlikely that anyone would ever bend platinum in a real fight. Canto turned around to look at Hanjo.

"Any chance you're a metalbender, Hanjo?"

"Not yet, at least," Hanjo said. He was still fairly confident he could learn it one day, but it would take some professional training first.

Hanjo saw Sen's jaw drop out of the corner of his eye, and realized what he had done far too late. He'd been duped into revealing his real name with one of the simplest tricks in the book. Canto held up his hands in an expression of surrender. This wing of the museum was nearly empty, but he kept his voice low anyway.

"Don't worry, calm down," Canto said. Sen and Hanjo did not listen at all. If they had to fight in the middle of a museum, so be it.

"You two are really bad at noticing when you're being followed," Canto said.

As he spoke, some of the tourists in this part of the museum gradually shifted around to different exhibits, quite conveniently placing themselves between the trio of young men and all the exits. Canto glanced around, then returned his attention to the Avatar and his companion.

"I'm on your side," Canto said. "You've got a lot of friends here, but that's made it a popular target for your enemies too. It's not as safe here as you think."

"Then we'll leave on our own, thanks," Hanjo said. He backed a few steps away from Canto, and Sen followed him. The tourists behind them tensed visibly. Canto crossed his arms and tapped his elbow eleven times, the number of suspicious tourists he saw. Hanjo took another step back as he saw the suspicious gesture.

"If you're really on our side you won't try to stop us," Hanjo warned one more time. He didn't believe Canto's story in the slightest. If he were to turn around and see the "tourists" rapidly closing in on him, he might change his mind, but he did not turn around until he heard a dull thud and a loud scream.

A spike of ice that might have otherwise impaled Hanjo sailed broad to the side and crashed against the wall of the museum. One of the disguised enemies was bent over backwards, clutching at his gut. Canto's girlfriend was standing in front of the prone figure, and with a heavy swing of her leg, she slammed her heel into the attacker's face like a hammer, shattering his nose and teeth. The display of brutal violence shattered Sen's growing attraction to Ada, as well as the victims jaw.

Canto pulled a sword seemingly out of nowhere, and tossed it to his girlfriend, who removed a matching blade from a matching hiding place. Twin swords in hand, she went to work dismantling the attacking force. There were benders among the enemy force, and though she displayed no bending of her own, her martial skills and her swords made her more than a match for every single one of the eleven attackers. Sen was equal parts impressed and distressed by the display. She was talented, but she was unrestrained, using her blades without a care in the world for the pain she inflicted on her targets. Sen knew in the back of his head that cutting people is what swords were for, but it wasn't something he liked to see.

He looked closer at the battlefield, and in between the gleaming blades, Sen saw the glint of a smile on her face. Something about that made him incredibly uncomfortable.

"Ah, I said I'd introduce her," Canto said. "This is Ada."

Hanjo took in the sight of battle. All of the enemies had stopped focusing on the boys to deal with the female maelstrom of blades that had dropped into their midst. Hanjo looked to Canto.

"You going to help her or what?"

"Does she look like she needs my help?"

As if on cue, Ada swept her blade across the heels of the last attacker, sending them to the ground. Once she was certain that all her opponents were soundly defeated, Ada turned to the trio and gave a light smirk. Sen's face turned red, but then turned pale again when Ada strode confidently over to Canto and kissed him passionately.

Ada let go of Canto and shook her head, regaining her senses. None of the training she had done had prepared her for the sheer exhilaration of combat. Her heart was pounding, her adrenaline was pumping, she felt like she could take on the world. Despite her adrenaline high, she did have some duties to attend to. She straightened her hair and bowed towards the Avatar.

"My name is Ada," She said. She had not heard Canto introduce her, preoccupied as she was by completely dismantling a superior force, so she got a bit redundant. "It's an honor to meet you. But we should leave."

The commotion had attracted undue attention, and spectators were starting to gather. Ada led the way to an employee area of the museum, and quickly led them through winding maintenance tunnels. Sen kept pace as Ada led them into increasingly darker tunnels. Hanjo was still having his misgivings about the whole scenario, but Ada had proven quite decisively that she was there to protect them. He decided to play along for now.

Ada came to a dead halt in the walls of the maintenance tunnel, right next to an arrow-shaped chalk mark on the wall. She slammed her arm against the stone wall and waited. Nothing happened, so she turned to Sen.

"There's a safehouse back here," she said. "Can you open it up for us? Someone's supposed to be stationed inside, but they aren't."

Sen held his questions and walked up the portion of the wall with the chalk mark. He pressed his hands against it and moved the stones slowly, trying to get a feel for where the opening was. When he was confident, he began to dismantle the wall in their way.

"Are neither of you benders," Hanjo asked. It seemed strange that in a city defined by metalbending, the first people they'd met were both nonbenders.

"Unfortunately, no," Canto said. "There's meant to be one in every safehouse, but I guess they're slacking off."

Sen removed the last piece of the brick wall, and a cloud of dust rose up. Apparently the agent who was supposed to be stationed here had been slacking for quite some time. The area was covered in dust and cob webs. The four hurried inside, and Sen and Hanjo teamed up to rebuild the wall, completely disguising the fact that it had ever opened. Once they were safe, Ada offered them some long overdue explanations.

"We're with the Beifong family, technically," Ada said. "They knew they'd be spied on by the Energybender, so they trusted a family friend, our master Ko Rin, to handle supporting the Avatar in secret on their behalf. This way they can give you the support you need while still avoiding suspicion themselves."

The Beifongs were heavily involved in world affairs to this day. Huan's daughter ruled over Zaofu, an entire province of the Earth Kingdom, and her cousin Rannoch Beifong served as a Minister in the United Earth Kingdom Parliament. Since some of the other provincial leaders and Ministers were more heavily opposed to the Avatar, the Beifongs overtly giving Sen support would spark tension across the whole country. It made sense for them to keep their support under wraps.

"So the Beifongs use people like you as proxies," Hanjo said.

"Technically. We serve Ko Rin, not any of the Beifongs. Our operation was started by Baatar Junior shortly before his death. With him gone, no one in the Beifong family knows about us. They're often scrutinized by truth-seers, so secrecy is key."

Hanjo nodded. He'd been hoping to meet Wing and Wei while they were here, but he understood why that wasn't possible. The name Bataar Junior troubled him slightly, but Kuvira's former fiancee had spent most of his life atoning for his part in creating the Spirit Cannon, so Hanjo felt like he could trust this last effort. Hopefully the fact that his final act had helped save the new Avatar's life would help further redeem Bataar Jr.'s tainted reputation.

Canto had taken up position at the dusty radio and was trying to use it to connect to Ko Rin, intending to fill their master in on all the details, but he was having no luck so far. If this was a phone everything would be so much easier, but it was hard to get a phone line into a secret safehouse. He passed the time by helping Ada answer the Avatar's questions.

"So how do you two know who we are?"

"Technically, we only know who Hanjo is. Our allies recovered his documents from the orphanage, and it was easy to get his description from fellow orphans. You, however, were much more troublesome, Avatar. We don't know your name, your parents, your history. Anything."

"Well, um, I'm Sen," He said. "That's actually all I can tell you. I don't know any of that other stuff either."

Most of Sen's life was a blank slate, now that he thought about it. His years at the orphanage had been very uneventful.

"It's an honor to meet you, Avatar Sen."

Ada bowed deeply. Sen had never been bowed to before. He should probably get used to it. He had the feeling it was going to happen a lot more in the near future.

"So how did you two find us?"

"Coincidence, actually," Ada admitted. "We really were heading to the museum when we met you."

"Ada is _very_ interested in swords," Canto chimed in. Ada rolled her eyes.

"There's a little more to it than that," Ada mumbled. The real explanation was long-winded and convoluted, so she spared Sen the details. He had other questions anyway. Sen asked a few questions about the Energybender. Unfortunately, Ada had no more answers than Sen did. The man known as Howler was still an enigma, rarely making public appearances or speaking to anyone outside of his organization. His methods, his agenda, and the true extent of his powers was still a mystery. One of the only conclusive facts, thanks to the last survivors of the White Lotus, was that this Energybender was likely a successor or partner to the one who had destroyed the White Lotus. The Energybender responsible for attacking the Lotus Headquarters had been an elderly man with a plain face; the current Energybender who had appeared at Beaker Hall was young, with grey circles around his eyes.

The radio suddenly crackled to life, catching all those in the room off guard. Canto grabbed the mouthpiece and started listing off a sequence of numbers, completely meaningless to any random listener, but a very meaningful signal to Ko Rin. It said that they were in a secure location but were being pursued, and that they had the Avatar with them.

"My location is likewise secure, we may speak freely," an elderly mans voice said. Canto explained the full situation of the museum attack. The radio was silent for a brief moment when Canto finished his summation.

"May I speak to the Avatar?"

Canto relinquished the radio, and Sen reluctantly sat in front of the microphone.

"Hi, this is Avatar Sen," He said sheepishly.

"I regret that we cannot meet in person, Avatar," Ko Rin said. "I would like to know more about your situation. What skills you have, where you have been, anything that may help me serve you."

Sen gave Ko Rin an abridged version of his adventures thus far, including people who might know he was the Avatar, as well as the fact that he had little to no skills in earthbending.

"My agents will take steps to ensure that the town of Zang and the train worker Tserang remain secure, then. As to your bending training, I believe I can find you a master that should suit your needs. The process may take several days, to ensure the utmost security. You should be safe for the moment, so rest easy. Ada can lead you to a more comfortable safehouse at nightfall, when travel is more secure. I will be in contact when we are ready to move."

The radio crackled once more and then fell silent. Sen happily stepped away from the radio and looked over his new allies. As impressive as Ada was, she was counterbalanced by Canto, who did not exactly exude usefulness. They made an odd pair. Sen wondered how a talented warrior had ended up with a quiet dork like Canto. Maybe that was just some latent jealousy talking, though.

"So, when we get out of here," Hanjo began. "What then?"

"We'll cycle through several safehouses until Ko Rin finds you a master. Our enemies will be watching us closely after this attack, though, so this may take a while."

"I like the idea of moving faster, though. Could we leave today?"

"In theory," Ada said roughly. "We have resources set up in advance to help you, but the question is finding a master. Among other concerns."

Ada and Canto glanced briefly at Hanjo, then tried to act like they hadn't. Their training in stealth was apparently subpar, because Hanjo definitely noticed.

"What's that look supposed to mean?"

"Well, if we could use you to track the Avatar, Hanjo," Ada explained. "So could anyone. It's nothing personal, but we think you should part ways with the Avatar."

"That's not going to happen," Sen stated. Hanjo had rarely heard him be so decisive. Ada shrugged.

"It was only a suggestion. I understand wanting to keep people close."

Ada and Canto smiled warmly at one another. Perhaps this situation dug up some fond memories for the young couple. Sen was just glad they weren't trying to take him and Hanjo apart. Hanjo had been his only direction so far, even if he insisted on keeping their destination secret. He would be a very confused Avatar without Hanjo leading the way.

The four of them broke off into their pre-determined pairs, Ada with Canto and Hanjo with Sen, to discuss recent events. Hanjo and Sen mostly discussed business, and while Ada and Canto started out much the same, they rapidly devolved into more flirtatious behavior. Sen was surprised that he didn't feel bothered by this. His earlier attraction to Ada had been a very passing thing, apparently. With that out of his mind, he could focus on planning with Hanjo. Hanjo eventually had an idea that required the input of the flirty couple. Hanjo forced them out of their game of winking and whispering and made them listen to him.

"You said you had a way to get us out of here already, right?"

"We do. We have a vehicle and supplies ready to go once Ko Rin is done."

"And why are we waiting on Ko Rin?"

"Because we need an earthbending master for Sen."

"We can find another one," Hanjo explained. "Probably a better one. If the Energybender really is watching you that closely, he'll notice if a talented master suddenly disappears."

Hanjo had a point. Howler would likely be watching out for sudden disappearances like that, especially in Zaofu. It might be better to recruit a master from a town under less heavy scrutiny, so their travels with the Avatar would go unnoticed.

"I think we should leave now. If Ko Rin has to worry that much about security, we should just leave him out of it. He can't let the enemy know if he doesn't know."

Ada shook her head intensely.

"No way. No. We're not going behind Ko Rin's back on this one. We need him to make sure we can travel stealthily, so we can avoid attention."

"But can't you two do that?"

"Not on such short notice. It would take a long time to plan all that out..."

"Not if you went with them," Canto said. Sen could see Ada's shoes come loose as she nearly jumped out of them. Hanjo had actually been thinking something along those lines, so he nodded in agreement.

"I was actually going to invite both of you," Hanjo added. "If you're willing."

"I'm no good on the road or in a fight," Canto said, and Hanjo didn't doubt it. Inviting Canto had mostly been a courtesy move; you could tell just from looking at the wiry nerd that he was no good in a fight. "I'd only use up supplies. Ada will be much more help."

"What do you think, Sen?"

Sen was of two minds. Ada had a lot of the things they needed; she had intelligence, combat skills, and resources. They'd be much better off for having her. On the other hand, Sen could not shake the image of her slicing Energybender troops to ribbons from his head. She was overzealous in combat, to the point where Sen worried about being in a fight with her. He couldn't just say that to her, though; she seemed to be nice enough when she wasn't in the middle of a fight, and Sen was loathe to hurt her feelings. He decided to leave it up to her.

"I'd like to know what Ada thinks," Sen said. Nobody had yet asked her opinion on this plan. She had been sitting around looking confused while Hanjo and Canto had discussed things. The three turned to her, and she shook her head slowly.

"I can't just- I can't leave so suddenly. I mean, my parents, and Ko Rin, what would they think? And Canto, you-"

"I'll explain everything, doll," Canto said with a sickeningly saccharine tone. "This is the kind of thing you were born to do. I mean, the way you fought earlier, I've never seen you so excited! You were meant for adventure."

Ada could remember the earlier rampage. She'd never felt quite so alive, not in all her years of training, or dating Canto, had anything made her quite as excited as the rush of combat. She could feel something like an addiction already. She wanted to fight again. She needed to fight again. She looked at Sen, the Avatar, and saw the adventure of a lifetime. The thought of it set her heart pounding, and she made up her mind. Sen caught the eager look in his eyes and almost regretted his decision.

"Alright, I'll do it."

Canto clapped his hands together and stood up. Ada got up, stretched out her arms, and then gave Canto an uncomfortably long kiss. Hanjo and Sen waited awkwardly for the two lovers to part lips. Hanjo coughed lightly as it dragged on. They pulled their faces apart at his insistence.

"Call me when you get the chance," a deeply lovestruck Canto said.

"Of course," Ada said, in a tone so light-hearted you'd almost forget she had single-handedly demolished eleven trained soldiers just an hour earlier. Even the biggest badasses had to get a little flowery sometimes.

Hanjo tore open the brick wall of the safehouse, and the two lovers reluctantly parted ways. Canto ran off to an unknown destination, while Ada led Hanjo and Sen to their exit from Zaofu. They escaped the museum, which was now surrounded by police and curious bystanders, and dove through open streets and hidden passages. Eventually their frantic sprint took them to a tunnel underground, merely on part of a complex network. The amount of earthbenders that lived in Zaofu made secret tunnels such as this very easy to make.

A quiet march through underground tunnels first led them to a hidden armory, a stockpile of weaponry and armor. Hanjo was very excited to see some of the fancy tools, but Ada insisted they only take a few things. She handed Hanjo a smoke canister hidden within a rock; the rock around the gas dispenser could be earthbent like any other stone, making it more useful than a traditional throwable canister. She gave Sen a few platinum orbs; she explained that there were stones in the center of each. Someone who knew about the hidden stones would be able to bend them, seemingly defying the laws of metalbending and preventing other earthbenders from stealing or deflecting the stones with their own bending. She then took one last thing, a small round device, but refused to explain what it was. Sen didn't like that she was already keeping secrets, but decided to trust her, since he was apparently stuck with her now.

Finally, she grabbed two swords, a pair of short Dao swords with a strange mechanism on the back. She traded out the blades she had used earlier for the new pair. With a flick of a switch, an electric current ran through both swords, explaining the function of the strange device on the flat of the blade. Sen would not want to be on the receiving end of such a vicious pair of swords. Luckily Ada was now on his team.

Abandoning the armory just as quickly as they had arrived, Ada continued their slog through the dark tunnels of the underground. They were barely illuminated by crystals that gave off a dull green glow. Sen wished he could firebend, just so he was actually able to see. Ada seemed to have an instinctive knowledge of where to go, and they soon arrived at their detination. They emerged from the tunnel network into what seemed to be a garage.

Hanjo admired several silent rows of satomobiles as they walked past. They were in various states of disrepair, many of them having been cannibalized for parts, but others were still in very good shape. Ada led them past rows and row of the vehicles, stopping in front of one covered by a tarp. Hanjo got very excited, and what was under the tarp did not disappoint. It was a beautiful machine, gleaming black and silver like it was fresh out of the factory. Ada noticed Hanjo's admiration.

"Some of us call it the Avatarmobile," She said.

"That is exactly what I was going to call it," Hanjo said with a smile.

"Everything we need should already be inside," Ada said. Hanjo took a look at the interior. It was just as posh as the paintjob on the outside, probably the fanciest upholstery available all around. Looking at the seats, it had room for six people. No cupholders, though. Sen had other concerns.

"We're never going to fit Gun in there," he said.

"Who's Gun?"

As if in answer, Gun emerged from the rocky ground of the garage. He took one look at the rows of Satomobiles, snarled, and vanished back into the earth immediately. Apparently he didn't like satomobiles.

"That was Gun," Hanjo said. "Animal guide."

Ada looked deeply concerned by the fact that she was going to be travelling with what was, by all appearances, a feral animal. She took a deep breath. travelling with the Avatar was the ultimate adventure, she recalled to herself, it was worth any amount of animal companions.

"You know, I have the feeling it'll be alright," Sen said. Gun had showed an uncanny ability to follow them in the past, after all. "Let's go."

Ada hopped into the drivers seat, as Hanjo barely knew how to drive, and started the engine. Hanjo and Sen tucked themselves into the backseat, relaxed, and enjoyed the ride.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Looking Forward

Wherever they were going, they were getting there a lot faster thanks to Ada and the Avatarmobile, but Sen still had no idea what their destination was. Hanjo and Ada had conferred about Hanjo's secret destination, but Sen was still out of the loop. He finally let his curiosity get the better of him.

"Please tell me where we're going," Sen begged. His only hope was that Ada would be more forthcoming. Hanjo's lips were sealed.

"Somewhere familiar," Ada hinted. "At least to your past life. It should help you connect with Korra. But it'll be more effective if it's a surprise."

Despite her advice, Sen still felt like guessing.

"Is it the pro-bending arena?"

It was not. It was also not Air Temple Island, the Spirit Portals, the South Pole, Sato Manor, or the one sushi stand with the pictures of Avatars, but they should probably go there sometime for a picture.

The only thing Ada and Hanjo would talk about was that it was past the Stark Road, a strip of road that winded through mountains, stretching out for such a distance that most satomobiles would run out of gas before even crossing it. It only existed for caravans and other long-duration trips, and was very sparsely travelled.

"The Gasoline Oasis is the last stop before we hit the Stark Road," Ada said. "It's a small business that sprung up just to serve travelers on this road. We can get gasoline and top off our supplies there, just to be safe."

The Avatarmobile was very fuel efficient, but even they'd need a spare gas tank to cross the whole road. Sen had raised the possibility of getting Gun to tunnel them through the mountains instead, but Hanjo and Ada were not willing to trust the satomobile to Gun's tunneling skills. Gun didn't seem to like the Avatarmobile much anyway. He refused to ride in it, preferring to tunnel alongside instead. He popped up now and then to huff angrily at the vehicle, but stayed underground otherwise. Sen didn't know how he could keep up travelling at these speeds for so long, but Gun seemed to be doing fine.

Even now Sen could see why they called it the Stark Road. The verdant evergreen forests of Zaofu province were giving way to scrub grass and small bushes. It wasn't quite as bad as the Siwong, but it was a fairly inhospitable landscape.

They found their way to the Gasoline Oasis after a few hours. It was a ramshackle building held together by rusty nails and prayers. Sen could practically smell the tetanus in the air. A few sketchy looking customers eyed the fancy chrome trimmings of the Avatarmobile, so Hanjo stayed with the vehicle while Sen and Ada got the necessary supplies.

"Do you have a phone, by any chance," Ada asked the elderly clerk. She shook her head, and Ada was clearly disappointed.

"You know, if you want, I could Astral Project myself to Canto and give him a message."

"Oh, that'd be great! Could you tell him-"

"Ada no," Sen said hastily. "That was joking. I can hardly earthbend."

Ada glared at him angrily. Sen put "the boyfriend" into his list of things that he could not joke about with Ada. He really didn't know what to do about her. Travelling with Hanjo and Gun had sort of happened organically, but Ada was different. She'd kind of come out of nowhere, and her violent entry into his life had left him with an awkward first impression. He figured talking business was a good place to start.

"So, do you think we'll encounter any trouble on the road?"

"Not likely," Ada said. "It's too desolate out there to support many bandit bases or large predators. The only thing we're liable to die of is boredom."

"I spent three weeks wandering the woods with only Hanjo for company," Sen said. "I can handle boredom."

Ada actually laughed at that. Sen was glad to hear her laugh. She was a normal person after all. Hopefully the two of them would become friends.

Hanjo stopped glaring at the sketchy people when Ada returned. She had swords, so there was no need to be intimidating when she was around. There were many kinds of people in the world, but all kinds agreed that large swords were to be avoided whenever convenient. They squeezed the supplies into the trunk and set off again. The road started getting very steep and very twisted within a mile or two. Ada took it slowly and carefully up the slopes.

"So, Ada tell me," Hanjo began. He put his feet up and Ada smacked them down. It didn't dissuade him. "What's up with you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what's going on in your life, overall? We know you have a boyfriend and you're a cool spy kind of girl, but what about the rest of your life? You're about the same age as me and Sen, but you're not an orphan like us."

"No, I'm not," Ada said. Zaofu was highly secure and very supportive of the Avatar; children had not been abandoned as frequently as they had been in the other provinces. Ada's parents had kept her despite the "risk" of her becoming the new Avatar. They had been a little relieved when she'd turned out a non-bender, though.

"You go to school or anything?"

"Not really," Ada replied. "If you're looking to find out what a normal life in Zaofu is like, you're probably asking the wrong person. I'm a black ops paramilitary agent, if you recall."

"You have a valid point," Hanjo said. "New question: What's it like being a black ops paramilitary agent?"

"Boring, until you two showed up. I spent all my days training. One time I tailed a Weaver to see what he was up to and make sure he didn't arrest anyone. I didn't do much else."

"What kind of secret agent are you?"

"A very special one. My unit was built exclusively to support you, Sen. Without you there, we didn't really have anything to do."

Ko Rin had organized the Ministers secret team into several groups, designating each with a specific duty. Ada had never met any agents outside her own small group, but she knew that there were teams focused on espionage, communication, and resource acquisition. Her group had been built specifically for the Avatar, acquiring resources for him and, in Ada's case, accompanying him and assuring his safety.

"How did you get a boyfriend in all the training and stuff?"

"Me and Canto worked together," Ada explained. "Eventually we decided to try something more. Ko Rin tried to separate us, at first, but we found workarounds, and he gave up."

"Please do go into detail about your courtship process," Hanjo asked sarcastically. "I'd like to know everything about how that guy managed to seduce you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Hanjo began to backpedal hard enough to win a bike race in reverse. When Ada was satisfied with his confused retraction, she told him to stop talking, which he gladly did. It was hard to keep Hanjo's mouth shut for long, though, and within an hour of driving he was back into the conversation. This time his topic of choice would be something more helpful, though.

"Have you tried doing any meditating, Sen? Slipping through the world, and all that."

"Not a whole lot. We've been on the move most of the time since I've known I was the Avatar, haven't we?"

Sen had yet to think about a long-term plan for himself. Right now his two big concerns were to learn Earthbending and not get killed by the Energybender. Everything else was a tertiary objective. Spirituality had barely occurred to him.

"Well, I figure since Ada's doing the driving and everyone here knows you're the Avatar," Hanjo explained. "Why don't you do that monk thing and try to get in touch with your spiritual side."

"Ko Rin gave me some lessons that might help you," Ada offered. "He says not to envision yourself travelling between the material and spirit worlds, but to recognize that you already are between them."

"That's a little better than 'do that monk thing', yeah," Sen joked. Hanjo was, naturally, offended.

"The roads a little rough ahead, so don't start just yet," Ada told him. "We'll reach a very smooth plateau soon, so you can try then."

Sen listened to her advice and waited. The Avatarmobile was soon jostled by a bumpy, poorly paved road, shortly before they began a climb up a steep incline, forcing Sen to lean side to side as the vehicles center of balance shifted. This took quite some time before the level of the road normalized and they were once again on flat ground.

It was pretty obvious why they called it the Stark Road now. Hanjo couldn't see even see the end of the road ahead. The flat expanse stretched outwards past the horizon, seeming to vanish into the sky far in the distance.

"Well, this looks…calming," Sen muttered.

"It's very sparse," Ada said, agreeing. "But, sometimes that helps the spirit. Airbenders used to live completely without possessions, you know."

Hanjo was glad he was an earthbender, then. He really liked stuff. Sen decided it was time to give meditation a try.

He closed his eyes and focused on Ada's earlier words, imagining himself in both worlds at once. He pictured familiar sights from the material plane; the corridors of Beaker Hall, the arching trees of the forests, and the skyscrapers of Zaofu whirring by as he rode the skyways. Then he imagined the spirit world. He'd never been there, so this was much harder. He remembered descriptions of it, though, and constructed an image of shimmering auroras in the sky, strange alien plants, and glowing spirits wandering through fields of pink grass.

He took a deep breath, exhaled, and found his mind wandering to an image of a great tree, its branches spreading further than his eyes could see. There was something like a cloud sitting at the bottom, but not a cloud. All of it was bathed in a blindingly brilliant light, like staring directly into the sun.

The satomobile jerked suddenly, tearing him abruptly from his vision. Back in the real world, he was highly disoriented, and it took him a minute to straighten out his head.

"What just happened," He said, blinking black spots from his eyes.

"Nothing," Hanjo snapped back.

"Ada?"

"Nothing."

In reality, Ada had accidentally run over a squirrelsnake, and panicked for a second, swerving slightly. Hanjo knew Sen was a bit of a softy and wouldn't like knowing about a dead animal, so he'd covered it up. Ada had just followed his lead.

"Did the meditating thing work," Hanjo asked, changing the subject as quickly as possible.

"Almost," Sen said. He could still picture the mysterious tree in his head. "Then 'nothing' happened."

"You're closer than you were before, at least," Ada said. "Did you see anything in particular?"

"A giant tree, with a stone cloud at the bottom."

"Was the tree old and twisted?"

"No, it was giant and healthy," Sen said. Thinking about it made his head hurt. "It had so many branches and leaves I couldn't even see them all. Everything was bright, too. There was light everywhere."

"I'm not familiar with it. The Tree of Time is very important to Avatars, but that doesn't sound like it."

"What about the thing at the bottom, the stone cloud," Hanjo asked.

"It doesn't match anything I've seen either," Ada said. "But my experience with the Spirit World is very limited."

"Have you been there?"

"Yes, Master Ko Rin took me through the Spirit Portal in Republic City once. It was a short visit, but he familiarized me with locations like the Tree of Time and Korra's Garden. I've never meditated across the planes like Sen can, of course."

"Is there a difference between going through the portals and meditating there," Sen asked. "Besides keeping your bending?"

"Yes. While entering through the portals, you keep your ability to bend, but you're bound by certain physical limitations like gravity and fatigue. Those who meditate across the planes have less, I would call it 'physicality'. They can travel great distances instantly, ignore barriers and obstacles, and manipulate spirit energy more directly. The stress of separation between body and soul usually kills the meditating one if they stay too long, though."

"I don't think I was really in the Spirit World," Sen concluded. "I could still feel myself breathing, and my heart beating."

"Perhaps the Avatar Spirit was guiding you," Ada suggested. "Showing you a potential destination for the future. Avatar's have exhibited the ability in the past."

"I'll keep it in mind if I see any giant trees," Sen said. "Right now it's just giving me a headache."

They were in the midst of the Stark Road now, as the sun vanished over the flat line of the eastern horizon. There was nothing to be seen but dusty road ahead and dusty road behind. They were all seated very close together, but every one of the three felt very alone. The pervasive quiet seeped into the vehicle, silencing all passengers for quite some time. Sen nursed his aching head, Ada thought of the future, and Hanjo wondered if he could paint a giant picture on the ground here and would someone in an airplane be able to see it.

Sen closed his eyes and gripped his temples, trying to shake off the headache his rude awakening had given him. It had been hours and he still made no progress clearing his mind. The more he tried to retrieve the mental image of the tree, the more his head hurt. He gave up entirely and suddenly found himself exhausted. Over time, he fell asleep completely.

"Do you think we should stop for the night? Better to wake him up now than shake him awake later."

Ada checked the fuel gauge. If they filled up in the morning, they'd have enough gas to cross the rest of the Stark Road. Now was as good a time as any to stop for the night.

She pulled into a flat clearing on the side of the road as Hanjo woke Sen. He wasn't too put off by being woken up, and he helped them all unpack their things. As they set up the camp, Gun emerged from the hillside and wandered over to the side of Sen's bedroll. He didn't seem bothered at all by the fact that he'd tunneled through miles of stone at a breakneck pace. Hanjo was impressed with the little guys' spirit, but he had to wonder if all badgermoles were like that or if Gun was special.

The Animal Guides presence seemed to lull Sen into an even more restful state, and he fell asleep before the other two had finished setting up their sleeping arrangement. They both stayed awake for a while yet. Ada tried to call Gun over to her, wanting to acquaint herself with the strange creature, but Gun refused her summons. Out of curiosity, Hanjo tried to do the same, and Gun wandered lazily to his side almost instantly. Ada was offended.

"Don't be like that," Hanjo said sleepily. "He thinks me and Sen are like him because we're earthbenders, and you're not one."

As an experiment, Ada started pushing nearby stones around with her hands, but Gun saw right through her charade, and scattered all the stones she was toying with. The badgermole huffed angrily and turned his back on Ada.

"Well, I really feel like part of the team," Ada grunted. Gun snorted derisively, sensing her frustration.

"Tell me about it," Hanjo said.

Ada looked at him expectantly, but he never offered an explanation. Hanjo rolled himself up in his sheets, enjoying the feeling of having something between him and the dirt, and fell asleep. Ada eventually joined them all in the land of dreams.

Hanjo woke the next morning, feeling refreshed. He'd been woken by the sounds of chewing, and assumed breakfast was started already. With a yawn and a stretch, he examined his surroundings. Breakfast was definitely not happening, because he was the only one awake, except for Gun, who was loudly chewing on something that was both crunchy and juicy at the same time. Hanjo let out a disgusted grunt and crawled out of his sleeping bag.

It was time to enjoy a real breakfast for the first time in weeks. He'd noticed bacon and bread in their food supplies and decided bacon and toast would be a good breakfast. He dug the food out and found the portable grill they'd been supplied and got cooking. Ada was woken by his rummaging and lazily sat up to observe the cooking process.

Hanjo had absolutely no idea if he was doing this right, but the first piece of bacon was palatable, so he handed some off to Ada to get a second opinion. She didn't spit it out, so he assumed he was doing well.

"Did you use the gas grill?"

"Yeah, I did," He said. Sudden realization dawned. "Oh no! Did I accidentally use up our extra gas and strand us out here?"

"What? No," Ada said sleepily. "We have plenty of gas."

Hanjo let out the longest sigh of his life. That had been the most stressful seven seconds of his life, or at least in the top ten. He'd had a lot of very stressful seven seconds lately.

"I just didn't know you knew how to work it," Ada said. She was managing to fall asleep while still eating. Hanjo would do the same thing if he could, but as he was sitting over a hit grill, sleeping now would end with a badly burned face, and he was too handsome to allow that to happen to himself.

He finished up with the bacon and started on toast. He set the first piece on fire, but the rest of it went fairly well, and Gun didn't seem to mind eating the bread after Hanjo had panicked, tossed it into the dirt, and stomped on it for five minutes.

"Hey Sen," Hanjo shouted. "Time to wake up, Avatar."

Sen didn't respond. Ada managed to overcome her sleepiness long enough to check on him. She let out a long, lazy 'hmm' as she watched over him.

"What's up with sleepyhead," Hanjo asked. He was really proud of his cooking, and wanted Sen to get a taste of it before it got cold.

"I think he's having some kind of spiritual experience," Ada said. She sounded more awake now. Sen was still sleeping like a stone. Ada held a hand over his mouth.

"His breathing and his heart are slow," Ada said, feeling his breath leave his mouth in slow, heavy gasps. "And he isn't responding to noise or contact."

Hanjo bent over his friend, staring at Sen's restful face. He was barely moving at all; even his breathing was shallow and still. Hanjo snapped his fingers in front of Sen's face a few times, and the Avatar did not respond.

"I think yesterday's meditation connected him to spiritual energy, and it overcame his mind in his sleep. He could be in contact with Raava herself for all we know."

"Well good for him," Hanjo said. "If he's been at it all night then he must have learned something useful."

"Yes, but its best we not wake him. He should wake on his own when he's done communing, and interrupting the link might harm him."

"Alright then." Hanjo bent over Sen's face. "Say hello to Korra for me, pal."

Hanjo popped into the comfortable seats of the Satomobile and lounged for an hour while he waited for Sen to wake. Ada, finally fully awake, started packing up the supplies that Hanjo had taken out. She didn't complain at all, so Hanjo assumed it was a fair division of labor. He cooked, she cleaned, like an old married couple except they were both young and not married. Gun occasionally dove into the ground to fetch some food for himself, but he always returned quickly. The Badgermole seemed upset that they weren't on the move. Ada topped off the gas tank, preparing them for the day's drive, and then joined Hanjo in the Avatarmobile as they waited.

After the third hour of waiting for Sen to wake up, Hanjo got a little impatient. He stomped over to Sen and examined his still unmoving body. Ada tried to pull him away. Gun was lounging near Sen's motionless body, chewing on some insect he'd pulled out of the ground. The badgermole finished devouring the torso, and then spat the head to the side, into a pile of similar heads. He'd been hunting those for a while, apparently.

"We're wasting a lot of time with this," Hanjo grunted. "Are you sure we can't wake him up?"

"We shouldn't," Ada said. "Depending on what kind of vision he's having, we may not need to go to your destination at all. He might even be seeing something that will lead us to an earthbending master for you two."

The sounds of Gun's chewing started to get on Hanjo's already tense nerves, stretched to their limits by Sen's' unconsciousness and Ada's know it all behavior about spirit stuff. He turned to tell the badgermole off just in time to see him spit another head to the side.

Why would Gun eat the whole bug except the head, Hanjo thought. He'd eat scorched, dust-coated bread, but not the head of a bug? Why would he suddenly be picky about his meals? There had to be something different about those bugs, and something had to have happened for Gun to be afraid of their heads.

Hanjo knelt down on the ground beside Sen's sleeping bag and pulled him forcefully out of it. Ada tried to stop him, but he kept pulling. Sen didn't seem to respond to being tugged around. His arm hung limply as Hanjo pulled it to the side and rolled up his sleeve.

One of the massive ant creatures flopped out of Sen's shirtsleeve. Large red welts were spread up and down Sen's arm, and some were oozing yellowish pus. Ada screamed.

Hanjo ripped the head off the ant creature and held it in his palm. It was a perfect match for the insects Gun had been hunting all morning.

"Do you have some kind of field guide," Hanjo asked Ada hurriedly. "We need to find out what this is, now."

Ada dove into their supply bags, finding the books she'd stashed at the bottom. After a few minutes of frantic flipping through pages, she found the section about insects. She carefully proceeded through it until she found a picture that matched the ant creature.

"It's a Witherroot Ant," She recited. "It only eats the roots of a poisonous plant, so its fangs are covered in toxic juices that can cause paralysis."

"Is it lethal?"

"It says not directly…" Ada read. "But if it's left untreated for too long, the bite might get so infected it causes other problems."

Hanjo looked at the swollen arm of his friend. They couldn't afford a risk like that.

"Is there some kind of remedy?"

"There's nothing natural," Ada said. "But it can be treated with medical antiseptics and sanitizers. We have some of those."

Ada handed the book off to Hanjo while she retrieved the medical supplies. Gun started sniffing at Sen's wounds. He whimpered unhappily as he smelled sickness coming from his master. He went to Hanjo to be comforted, but Hanjo was too busy reading everything the guide book had to say about the Witherroot Ant.

The toxins they were covered in weren't particularly dangerous or fast moving, but the book noted that delaying treatment would increase the danger, and thanks to Ada's preoccupation with spiritual shenanigans, they'd done just that. Hopefully they had enough supplies to reverse the damage time had caused.

Ada returned, ready to work, and she didn't waste any time cleaning Sen's wounds and treating them with the antiseptics. To Hanjo, it looked like things were going fairly well, but Ada sighed occasionally, which lowered his hopes. After a period of repeatedly cleaning the bites and then wrapping them in bandages, Ada looked like she was finally done. Hanjo immediately asked what the verdict was.

"He's okay for now," Ada said. "But I think the poison is still in his blood. It'll come back later."

"We need to get him to a professional," Hanjo stated. "There's a town just on the other side of this road, right?"

"Close enough. Let's move."

They unceremoniously deposited Sen into the back seat of the car and strapped him in. With their supplies packed up, they departed down the Stark Road again.

"From what I read, it sounds like we have plenty of time to get him to a doctor, right? Everything will be fine."

Ada said nothing. Hanjo didn't have to think much to guess what she was going through. If she hadn't insisted on leaving Sen alone, they might have caught the infection much earlier and been able to prevent it entirely. They had spent hours expecting him to be doing some kind of Avatar thing, and now they were wasting hours on the drive. It was past noon by the time Ada finally said what was on her mind.

"I'm sorry about this," She said. "It's all my fault, me and my big stupid mouth. 'Oh, he's meditating, of course he isn't dying', I'm an idiot."

"Eh, you screwed up," Hanjo said. "We'll deal with it. It's not like he's going to die."

Ada didn't even want to think about Sen dying. She'd hardly been travelling with him for three days; if she got the Avatar killed in that little time she'd go down as history's biggest idiot. Luckily that was a remote possibility. She could never undo her stupid mistake, but she could make sure no one faced any consequences. Hopefully Sen would forgive her.

"Everyone screws up at one time or another, even Sen," Hanjo continued. "But none of us are dead, so it all works out. You can make as many mistakes as you want, as long as you fix them all."

Ada was surprised at how wise Hanjo could be. If he had a more poetic vocabulary and a less smug tone, he'd sound a lot like Ko Rin.

An hour later, Sen finally overcame the paralytic effects of the Witherroot toxin. He was initially panicked and incoherent, but Hanjo talked him into settling down and eating something to recover his strength. After taking a few deep breaths and eating a meal, Sen was more like his usual self, but the toxin had affected him in more than one way.

"I could still think," Sen said, grasping at his head. "I couldn't call for help, or open my eyes, or feel if it was still biting me. I could still think."

Sen fell into silence, and Hanjo and Ada let him have his moment of contemplation. He examined the bandages on his arm and the red, inflamed skin that was peeking out around the edges. He had more to say, but he didn't know if he should tell his companions. During his paralysis he had experienced strange, nightmarish visions, like white masks staring at him and the feelings of metal bindings on his wrist. Sen tried to strike up conversation, ask what had happened while he'd been out, but any discussions that happened seemed awkward and forced, and they failed to take his mind off the nightmares. Sen gave up and tried to get some actual sleep. His prior unconsciousness had not been restful in any way, and he felt Sen had fallen asleep again, Hanjo and Ada tried to have a conversation about his well-being.

"He seemed alright to me," Hanjo said. "He wasn't rambling or slurring or anything."

"I don't think it's that kind of toxin," Ada countered. "But you're right. He seems fairly healthy, all things considered."

"Still, did you notice that he was, I don't know, a little off tone?"

"I don't know what you mean," Ada said.

"He usually doesn't talk like he was," Hanjo said. "There was something off about him. Like he didn't really want to say the things he was saying."

"I haven't known him long enough to say," Ada said. "But it wouldn't surprise me. Paralysis can be traumatizing."

"I think there's something else going on here," Hanjo said suspiciously. He stared at his sleeping friend. Sen wasn't exactly snoozing peacefully; he tossed and turned in his sleep, and you could see his eyelids shift as his eyes darted restlessly. Something more than the pain was troubling him.

"I'll trust your judgment, Hanjo," Ada said. "But it'll be up to Sen to tell us more."

Hanjo had a hunch that they weren't going to be told anytime soon. They were still hours away from medical care, and they had little to do to pass the time except worry about Sen. Ko Rin really should've packed a deck of cards in his Avatar Survival Kit, Hanjo thought.

After a few hours they reached the downhill slope of the Stark Road, a sure sign that they were getting closer to the end of the drive. There were still no signs of civilization, though. Hanjo peered down the side of the mountain they were driving on. Smoke from campfires was visible in the distance. Hanjo checked the map and found no sign of civilization on this stretch of road. He conferred with Ada about it and she agreed with his initial assessment; ambush. Bandits camping out at the side of the road to waylay travelers just coming off the Stark Road.

They both resolved to speed through the ambush site as quickly as possible, but life, and Sen's stomach, had other plans. Exactly as they were driving through the most treacherous stretch of road, Sen suddenly awoke with a violent groan and declared that he needed to throw up. After a short, intense debate, Ada agreed to stop the vehicle.

"You've got those fancy swords," Hanjo assured her. "We can handle anything that comes our way."

She was not so sure. She had a strange feeling about the trees, like someone was watching them from within the branches. Once he had gotten over his intense nausea, Sen agreed with her. She took the ailing Avatar by his shoulder and led him cautiously back to the vehicle.

"Come on, let's get you to a doctor," she said. She saw flickering movement in the branches, but nothing came of it. She and Sen returned to the vehicle and departed quickly.

No sooner had they left than a young man descended from the trees, examining the road they had driven down. He and his bandit comrades had been intending to rob the lot of them, but the young man had changed his mind when he'd seen Sen's sickened state, something his minions were none too happy about.

"That looked like the biggest score in weeks, Suda," One of them declared, likewise dropping from the treetops. Suda used his metalbending to create zipline paths through the trees, allowing he and his comrades to move through the treetops stealthily. A few dozen more bandits descended from the trees, complaining to the young boss.

"That boy was sick," Suda stated. "Robbing him now might have gotten him killed."

"But it would've fed us like kings for weeks," one bandit protested.

"We'll have plenty of time to rob them later," Suda declared. "Follow them into town, let them find a doctor, then take everything. I want a ride in that fancy satomobile of theirs."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Rogue Master

Sen examined his bandaged arm. The doctor had said he'd taken care of everything, but the bandages had to stay. Sen had the feeling the things he'd seen in his fever dreams would stick with him too. Hanjo saw the grim look on Sen's face and cheered him up.

"Don't worry about it," Hanjo advised. "You'll forget all about it once we get where we're going."

"You know, you still haven't told me where that is," Sen said. He was glad to take his mind off his hallucinations. Ada was glad they weren't talking about how she had caused those problems in the first place. She had apologized to Sen, of course, but they had never really talked about it. It was a conversation she was glad to avoid.

"We told you," Hanjo said. "We're bending the element of surprise on this one. No wait, that was a terrible pun, forget I ever said that."

"Nope," Sen said. "I'm going to remember that forever, and so is every Avatar that ever comes after me."

"Your terrible joke will live on long after the mountains have crumbled to dust," Ada continued.

It felt good to just joke around again. Sen hadn't done that in a while. He hoped nothing would happen any time soon. He needed a little time to just goof around with Hanjo.

He got his wish, and for hours he got to relax in the Avatarmobile, having his back and forth with Hanjo and Ada about whatever he felt like talking about, and only what he felt like talking about. He only got it that way, of course, because the bad things coming had intentionally decided to delay themselves.

"You sure we can keep this chase up, Suda? We can make a roadblock any time."

"I trust you guys," Suda said to his henchmen. "Keep an eye on them. Don't move until they stop."

The bandits were getting more and more upset with Suda. They'd been following this single satomobile for more than a day now. It was a hefty prize to take, but that only made the bandits more impatient, not less.

"I'm surprised you're not letting them go by. You always liked kids."

"I am a kid," Suda said. "I got to make friends my own age someday, you old farts."

"Hey, don't lump as all together," someone objected. "I'm a decade younger than the rest of these guys!"

"And a decade older than me," Suda replied. Twenty was a little young to be the boss of a bandit clan, but he was the only metalbender around, and all the guys liked him. They didn't much like how he picked their targets, though. Many of them were more fond of attacking indiscriminately, not waiting for a rich and vulnerable target like the kids in the fancy satomobile.

The vehicle itself would keep every one of the guys fed for weeks. He would let them keep it, because of course they wanted to, but they'd just tear it up and make it into a junker. It was too nice to be left in the hands of these savages, so Suda would sell it to someone respectable, then steal it back and sell it to someone else respectable. After he got to drive it, of course. He couldn't shake the feeling he was destined for that satomobile.

The Satomobiles driver, the girl, looked to be the only real problem they'd face in the heist. She seemed very aware, very focused, and occasionally Suda got the feeling that she could see his bandits zip lining through the trees. They'd carved out a fairly sheltered little route along the roadside, but the camouflage wasn't perfect. It didn't much matter if they'd been spotted. She'd have to stop eventually, and Suda's bandits outnumbered her retinue ten to one.

Ada stopped at the side of the road, at an area that looked like it had been used as a campsite recently. The earth nation was so massive that roadside campsites like this were common, used so weary drivers wouldn't have to drive through the night to reach the next town. Unfortunately, on well-travelled roads, they often became hotspots of bandit activity. Hanjo and Sen were demanding lunch, though, so she'd been outvoted when the issue of stopping or not came to a vote. Ada had seen hints of motion in the treetops earlier, but her suspicions were unconfirmed for now. It could be wild Hog Monkeys swinging from the branches for all she knew. It was worth checking out in either case. Hog Monkeys could be just as destructive as bandits if they felt like it.

"You two focus on making lunch," Ada said. "I'm going to secure the perimeter."

"If that's code for 'I need to use the ladies room', it's the worst code I've ever heard," Sen said.

"We're all buddy buddy now Ada, you can tell us when you need to go," Hanjo continued.

Ada ignored their jokes and stared up at the treetops. She could swear she heard giggling, followed by a thud. It was far away, though, in the highest branches.

"Keep your eyes open," Ada cautioned.

"If you need to go I think we should be closing our eyes," Hanjo said, covering his face with his hand jokingly.

"I do not need to-"

She thought about continuing, but decided there was no point. In a way it was kind of comforting that they joked with her like that. She had been worried that Hanjo and Sen would think less of her after she'd allowed Sen to get poisoned by the ants. The fact that they still thought of her as a friend put her heart at ease. Still, she was not eager to fail Sen again, so if there was a threat to be found in these woods, she would find it.

Ada proceeded into the bushes surrounding the campsite and drew one of her Dao swords. She could use both just as well as she could use one, but she preferred the single-handed style, mostly because it left a backup if she got disarmed.

Remembering Ko Rin had ever taught her about stealth, Ada crept silently through the undergrowth, watching her steps carefully to avoid anything that might make unnecessary sound. It was an impressive display, but Suda had been watching her since the campsite, so it was all pointless.

He passed a message along to his bandits, using the sound of wind through the trees and far-off birds to disguise the sound of their whispering. Suda would go directly for their satomobile, incapacitating the boys on the way, while the bandit horde distracted the girl. Suda wanted to handle the vehicle personally, to ensure enough supplies were left behind for the teenagers to get to safety. The bandits were right; he had a soft spot for kids.

With a final, wordless signal to his men, they put the plan in action. The bandits dropped out of the trees, instantly surrounding Ada, while Suda metalbent his zip-line towards the satomobile. Ada didn't waste any time defending herself. Electrified thrusts with her sword drove the first wave of attackers back; they hadn't counted on her having anything so high-tech. After they accounted for the electric blade, they found themselves still woefully underprepared. Ada was one of the best swordswomen in Zaofu, and these bandits barely knew which end of a blade to hold.

She went through every motion she'd practiced, sweeping her eyes rapidly across the battlefield to analyze her opponents and respond. Their feet were here, so hers went there. One thrust with his right hand, she swept to his left. Someone steps back, she steps forward, gaining ground. She was like a machine, her opponents acted and she responded in perfect, scripted form. She tried not to get caught up in the moment, tried not to enjoy the rush of battle, but she failed. It was fun to test her skills against actual opponents, even ones as incompetent as the bandits.

Sensing one coming up behind her, she drew her second blade and pushed it behind her, activating the electric shocks on both swords as she thrust outwards. Two unlucky bandits caught the full force of the sparking blades and fell to the ground in quivering piles on either side of her. She jumped over the bandit body blockade and continued her fight, smiling all the while.

Suda had quite a bit more luck on his end of the fight. He caught Hanjo unawares, trapping him in metal bonds before he had a chance to react. Sen had more time to see the offensive coming, and he managed to avoid the first strike.

Sen hastily tore open the belt pouch containing the metal orbs he'd received in Zaofu. He'd had very little opportunity to practice with the weighted stones, but he didn't have much choice. Hopefully his attacker would be caught off guard by the seemingly unbendable stones long enough for Sen to get the upper hand.

Suda dropped out of the cover of the trees, giving Sen a clear target. The bandit's clothes were ragged and ill-fitting, but they couldn't hide the rugged physique beneath. Sen had met very few people quite as absolutely massive as Suda; everything about him was big, from his tangled, thick black hair to his heavyset eyebrows.

That just made him a big target, Sen assured himself. Sen launched the first volley of metal-plated rocks to almost no effect. Most of them went off course completely, and Suda dodged the few that almost found their mark. Dodging kept him from attacking, though, and that was progress.

Suda mistakenly believed Sen to be a metalbender, just as Sen had intended, and was pleasantly surprised; this would be more interesting than he thought. Not that Suda looked forward to a fight, ever, but he felt better about stealing things if the owner could fight for them. It felt more like he was winning things than stealing them if they fought back.

He was confident in his own metalbending skill, and when Sen launched the next volley, he didn't bother to dodge. Only one of the spheres made a course for his head. He focused on it, and found he could do absolutely nothing. He had a very brief second to register the confusion before the platinum orb hit him square in the face. Suda felt his nose go pop as he fell to the ground.

Sen took his momentary advantage to try and free Hanjo from his restraints, but the bonds were too tight. The metal band had woven itself into an intricate knot around his arms and legs, holding him in place quite firmly.

"Alright, alright, I don't get it," Suda began. His nose was bleeding, but he was otherwise fine, so he stood up. He examined the metal spheres that Sen had left lying on the ground. "You aren't a metalbender, since you can't get those chains off, but those balls are clearly metal, and you can bend them but I can't. What's the deal?"

He wasn't making much sense, probably due to head trauma. Suda cracked an awkward smile, a strange expression made more strange by the blood dripping across his lips.

"I have got to know how you do this," Suda asked. "What's the secret?"

Sen stared at him blankly. He wasn't attacking now, but he had been earlier, so he was of mixed feelings on the strange bandit. Suda decided it was time to garner some trust. Whatever trick Sen was using, he really wanted to know it.

"We clearly got off on the wrong foot," He began. "Hi, my name's Suda. I am a bandit by trade, but I'm not unreasonable. Remember when you stopped last night to vomit and you didn't get attacked? That was me doing the not attacking. I let you get better."

Hanjo and Sen did not respond. Were they waiting for something? Suda couldn't tell, so he decided to sweeten the pot. He flicked his wrist, and the metal bonds holding Hanjo in place loosened and fell to the ground.

"See? I'm not a bad guy."

Sen had a funny feeling in the pit of his gut about Suda. He couldn't tell if it was a good or a bad idea to trust him. He looked to Hanjo for advice. Hanjo decided that was his cue to take charge of the situation.

"Where's the girl at? Is she okay?"

Suda listened to the background noise of protracted violence. The screams he heard were mostly coming from his own men. These kids were just full of surprises.

"Sounds to me like she's doing alright. Tell me your secret, and I'll call off the attack."

"Call off your men first," Hanjo demanded. Suda supposed that was reasonable. He was, after all, the attacker in this scenario. Suda drew a flare gun from his belt and fired it straight up, briefly illuminating the twilight sky with a flash of bright red.

"That's the signal," Suda said, pointing at the rapidly fading flare. "Deal's a deal."

Sen called the stones back. They wobbled through the air back to his hands, and when they were secure, he tossed one to Suda. Suda examined the oddly weighted piece of metal.

"Feels strange," He noted. "Is this some kind of new alloy? Or did you just figure out how to bend platinum?"

"It's ordinary platinum," Sen explained. "But there's a rock sealed inside. If you know the rocks there, and where it is inside the ball, you can bend it if you're practiced enough. Anyone else won't be able to."

"Clever clever," Suda chanted under his breath. He rolled the stone in his hand, getting a feel for where the stone was inside the platinum. Once he was confident, he sent the stone whizzing through the air, shattering a tree branch into splinters. The strange feeling Sen had only intensified. Suda had mastered the trick stones in only a few seconds. He was obviously a very talented bender.

Maybe even talented enough to be a Master, Sen thought.

"That's marvelous," he said. "I love it. I'll have to get myself some. Unless of course you feel like selling yours."

"Not for sale," Sen replied. This was the moment where things went wrong or right. The bandit would either back down like he was supposed to, or betray their deal, like bandits usually did. Sen got the feeling Suda would keep his end of the bargain. Something in the pit of his gut told him Suda was not a bad person, despite his career as a bandit.

"Well, I'm not a poor man, I'll find some other way to buy them," Suda said. He returned the metal orb to Sen. Sen and Hanjo relaxed. Suda was keeping his word. The sounds of battle in the distance had stopped, being replaced by the sounds of panicked retreat, signifying that his men had already stopped attacking Ada. He'd follow them eventually, but he had more questions first.

"That really is a lovely trick," he repeated. "Did you come up with it on your own?"

"No, it was a…friend of ours."

"Well your friend is a downright genius," Suda said. He heard crashing footsteps in the bushes behind them. Probably the girl, exhausted from her battle, desperate to return to camp. Much to Suda's surprise, it was his own men crashing through the undergrowth.

Sen panicked, expecting the worst, and stomped his foot heavily. By the time Suda held up his hands to stop the advance of his men, Gun was already tunneling his way to the surface.

"What are you doing here, I called for a retreat!"

"The girl won't let us! We tried backing off and she chased us down, waving those blasted swords of hers like a madman! She's probably still hunting down Kozu's group!"

Gun emerged from the ground, sending earthy debris flying through the air. The already tense group of bandits panicked and covered their heads. Only Suda seemed unfazed. He watched the snarling badgermole with a look of admiration and surprise on his face.

"You've got a badgermole too," Suda said, astonished. He deflected the falling rocks away from his head and examined the exotic creature. "You are just full of surprises, aren't-"

Suda froze suddenly, and his jaw dropped. Sen could see the look in his eyes, and he knew exactly what it meant. Suda had figured it out. His eyes were, surprisingly, full of guilt.

"Spirits," he mumbled. "Everyone, this is all a terrible misunderstanding! We should apologize to-"

"Apologize," One of his bandits shouted incredulously. "I've been zapped more times than a lightning rod tonight, I'm not leaving until I get some money for my trouble!"

"You imbecile, do you have any idea who that is," Suda asked. "This is the Avatar! We are not going to hurt the Avatar!"

In a case of monumentally bad timing only comparable with Sozin's Comet and a Lunar Eclipse arriving on the same day, Ada closed on the bandits just in time to hear Suda shout "hurt the Avatar". Her mission was to not let that happen, so she acted quickly. She flicked the switch on her blade and dove at Suda, slashing the sword across his chest.

Suda's reflexes were good, but Ada was a professional, and the electrified Dao cut through his shirt and the skin beneath, singing both with its crackling energy. It wasn't a deep cut, but it was a painful one. Suda panicked and ran way hastily, and his bandits followed him into the distant forest, vanishing into the trees without a trace. Ada, satisfied in her defense of the Avatar, sheathed her swords and looked to Sen, expecting to see approval. All she got was an angry glare.

"Ada! He wasn't a threat."

"But I heard him-"

"He was trying to call off his men," Sen shouted. "What is wrong with you?"

Sen stepped forward, but Hanjo pushed him back into place, away from Ada.

"It was a misunderstanding, Sen," He said. "Ada was just trying to keep us safe. He wasn't even hurt that bad."

There was a moment of tense silence. Sen stared angrily at Ada. Her eyes darted guiltily between Sen's judgmental gaze and the forest path that Suda had fled on. Hanjo placed himself between the two, ready to intervene if the silence broke out into an argument.

This was exactly the kind of behavior that Sen had been afraid of. Ada had been too eager to fight, and she'd hurt someone that she hadn't needed to. Luckily she had restrained herself enough to not mortally wound Suda. The bandit would probably be fine, given enough time to recover. That alone kept Sen from sending her home right here and now.

Sen eventually shattered the quiet tension with a heavy sigh.

"Just don't do it again," He commanded. "Look before you leap."

Hopefully she could learn from this. Ada had been in very few fights before, apparently, so it was understandable that she didn't know her limits. If she kept acting like this, though, something would have to be done.

"I promise," Ada said hastily. "It'll never happen again."

Sen nodded and walked away from the staredown. Ada sighed in relief. Hanjo gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder before joining Sen back at the campsite. This had been a far too tiring day, and they were all eager to rest.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Remnant

Despite their apparent reconciliation, Sen and Ada didn't do much talking the next day. Hanjo did most of the talking anyway; they were apparently nearing his mystery destination, and he was all too eager to brag about what a great idea it was to come here, wherever here was.

After hours of Hanjo's ego stroking, he declared that they had reached their destination. Sen was eager to finally have his questions answered, but he only had more questions after seeing it. It was just a house. A very nice one, surrounded by a high fence and with a lovely cliff-side view of the ocean, but still just a house. Not even one he recognized; in all the stories he knew about Korra's life, none of them involved quaint seaside shacks.

"What exactly are we here to see," He asked.

"Not what," Hanjo said. Every word dripped with ego; he was incredibly proud of himself. "But who?"

Ada smiled reassuringly at Sen while Hanjo walked up to the gated fence and hammered on it loudly. After a moment, a young woman poked her head out of the house's front door and then proceeded to the gate. She was much too young to have known Korra very well, so Sen was still left wondering who he was here to see.

"We don't take visitors," The woman said impatiently. Apparently she was used to getting unwanted guests. That was curious. And who was the second person in "we"?

"But this is the Avatar," Hanjo said, gesturing enthusiastically to Sen. Sen stepped forward meekly, waving his hand at the stranger. She looked him over very critically, and seemed to approve. Why Hanjo trusted her with Sen's identity, Sen didn't know. Questions were piling up faster than they were being answered.

"He'll be excited to see you, then," She said welcomingly. She unlocked the platinum gate and guided Sen and company up the path into the home. Hanjo was practically dancing up the path, and Ada seemed rather upbeat as well. Sen would be glad to meet their mystery man and get it over with.

Their female guide told them to be quiet as they entered, and she stepped gently into the house's interior, quietly calling out into another room.

"Grandpa, someone's here to see you," She said.

"Did you finally stop chasing off the autograph kid? Good," An old man's voice called back loudly. "I've told you it's no trouble, an old man needs company, but what do you do? Keep telling him to go away, that's what."

Sen could hear bones creak from here as the old man in the other room stood up. As he came into view, it was obvious that he was old enough to have known Korra very well. His hair was white, his skin was wrinkled and spotted, and his back was bent by age. Despite all that, his shoulders remained broad and his eyes were sharp, showing that age had done little to dull his spirit. He smiled broadly as soon as he laid eyes on Sen. Something about those eyes looked at Sen in a very familiar way.

"It's been a while, Avatar," He said.

His head felt light as memories that weren't his rushed to the front of his mind. The images were muddled and unclear, but the message was very clear: you can trust this person with your life.

"Bolin?"

"Good to see you again," Bolin said. "How about some tea?"

Bolin led Sen to the porch, already rambling about his long history with the Avatar, while Hanjo stayed behind to examine the various trinkets Bolin kept of his life; movie posters, newspaper clippings, and pro-bending trophies. Ada asked Bolin's granddaughter if they had a phone, which they did, and hurried off to tell Canto about the journey so far.

"Now, I imagine you're here on very important Avatar business," Bolin said as they finally reached the porch. "Howler, most likely. Very clever of him to wait until you were dead to make his move, I'll admit. Why, Korra and the rest of us would have whipped him the moment he showed his ugly face!"

Bolin briefly shook his fist defiantly at absolutely nothing before dropping it limply to his side.

"But that's not an option anymore. So you have to do it!"

Bolin pointed at two chairs set up beside a small table, and was very specific about which one Sen had to sit in.

"Now, Korra used to visit here whenever she had time. She and I would sit at this table, on this porch, she actually used a different chair but one of my fat grandchildren broke the original, but it's the same kind of seat so it should work, and we'd drink tea from these cups."

"There's no cups here," Sen said quietly, looking at the barren table.

"Oh," Bolin said. "My bad, Opal always made the tea. Stay here and be spiritual."

Bolin vanished into the house for a good twenty minutes, returning with two teacups in his hands. Handing one to Sen and keeping the other for himself, he sat down and stared at the seaside.

"I'm afraid the tea isn't quite the same," He sighed regretfully. "Opal had a special touch, you know."

Sen tried some of the tea. He'd never really been a fan of tea, but he thought this cup was made pretty well.

"It's very good," He assured Bolin. Bolin didn't seem to hear the compliment.

For a moment they sat in silence, drinking tea and listening to the sound of the ocean far beneath their feet. Sen enjoyed how peaceful it was, but he didn't really feel very Avatar-y. The initial rush of memories from seeing Bolin had faded, leaving him feeling oddly hollow and incredibly alone.

"I don't mean to bother you, Bolin," He said shyly. "But I was hoping you could help me connect with Korra."

"Is this not working," Bolin replied, confused. "I thought with the tea, and the watching…"

Bolin smacked himself in the head suddenly.

"Of course," He said. His forehead had a red spot shaped like his hand on it. "Me and Korra never just sat around in silence, we were always talking about something."

He put his hand on his chin and froze for a few minutes. Sen was beginning to question if he hadn't fallen asleep when Bolin suddenly sprung back to motion.

"Do you remember the time we all got together to stop Dugan's Dragons from using Sozin's Comet to rob the First Republic Bank? Oh, the look on Mako's face when he finally used his firebending at full power! Nearly burned down the whole building, of course, but he was having a blast!"

Sen felt absolutely nothing. Bolin shook his head and tried again.

"What about the time we all went into the Spirit World, got rid of the leftover dark spirits? I nearly got my face stolen by that one nasty bug, you stepped in and- wait, no, that's not a good memory."

Sen felt a pang of unfamiliar guilt, but little else. Bolin tried again.

"Remember Lin's retirement party? She spent half the night trying to kick us all out of her house. Then at the very end she told us how much she cared about us all and how glad she was to have known us. You almost cried. And then she kicked us out of her house anyway."

Still nothing. Bolin listed off all kinds of the grand adventures he felt Sen should remember, but none of them stirred anything inside him. Meanwhile, Hanjo began eavesdropping on Ada, because he lacked anything better to do, and also because he was nosy.

"It hasn't been going well, all things considered, but Sen's safe and we're making progress. I'm trying to look on the bright side.," Ada said. Probably she'd just finished talking about the time Sen got bitten by ants and stabbed a relatively innocent person. She paused for a second while Canto spoke. Whatever he said, it sent her giggling. Hanjo hadn't heard Ada giggle before. She wasn't very good at it. Sounded forced.

"But, how have things been going on your end? Is Ko Rin very mad?"

She paused once again. Hanjo was beginning to think this was a waste of time, he couldn't even hear half the conversation.

"Well, that sounds absolutely riveting. Did I tell you I'm sitting in the home of the world's only lavabender," Ada chided. Clearly whatever Canto was up to was not nearly as exciting as their adventures.

"Don't say that," Ada said softly. "You know I miss you."

This is where it got mushy. Hanjo decided to leave while his stomach was still rightside-out. After about twenty minutes of what he could only assume was the most sickeningly saccharine teenage fever dream called love, Ada left the phone behind, blushing so hard you'd think she'd spilled red paint on herself.

"So what's the future Mr. Ada up to," Hanjo joked. Ada glared at him so intensely he could see the red fade from her cheeks as bubbly romantic feelings were replaced with a very biting anger.

"He's doing what he was trained to do," Ada reluctantly admitted. Hanjo saw some potential in her tone. She didn't exactly like what Canto was trained to do.

"What is that, exactly," Hanjo questioned. "I feel as though your 'special relationship' with Canto makes him an unofficial member of Team Avatar, so to speak. I'd like to be briefed on his capabilities."

Ada glared at the floorboards.

"He is…my group's specialist in monetary tracking and manipulation."

Hanjo was not the most linguistically gifted, but it still didn't take him long to break down the meaning of Ada's sentence.

"Your boyfriend is an _accountant_?"

"It's not like that," Ada objected. "He's an espionage agent, he just specializes in money. He finds out who's funding our enemies, and how we can get more money. All the money we have is thanks to him."

"Oh of course," Hanjo said. "Never underestimate the raw power of a flex spending account. I'm sure the Energybender will be running scared once he sees our black ops insurance policy. Tell me, do we have an undercover dental plan?"

Ada left the room without a word, which was alright with Hanjo. He'd used up all of his financial vocabulary already and didn't have any more jokes to make.

While Hanjo had been mocking Ada's incredibly mundane boyfriend, Bolin had been continuing his walk down memory lane with an Avatar who didn't even know what street they were on. He'd run out of grand adventures like their bargain with Wan Shi Tong and the first ever Avatar Adventures mover, and he was stuck talking about things like the time Opal bought Korra shoes that didn't fit and the three of them went shopping to find a pair that did and they bumped into Tahno and had a lovely chat about pro-bending.

"And then Tahno said, 'Tau Turtleducks? More like Tau Turtle-sucks!'. Or was it 'Hong-Li Hedgecats? More like Hong-Li Hedge-bads!'"

Bolin looked to the Avatar expectantly. Sen was staring blankly at him. The only thing that had changed was the amount of tea in Sen's cup. He was almost out. Bolin sighed. If this was Korra he'd have had a conversation going in no time flat. But it was someone else now, not his Avatar anymore. He shrugged and gave up.

"I've got nothing," he admitted. He pointed accusingly at his teacup. "I blame the tea. Doesn't have Opal's secret ingredient."

"Vanilla," Korra replied. "She kept it on the top shelf you were both too short to reach. Used airbending to get it down."

Bolin smiled to himself and took a drink of his vanilla-free tea. He could taste the difference, now that he thought about it. Should have figured it out earlier.

"It's the little things," Korra reminded him. She sat where Sen had been, but it was clear she was not really there. She looked as she had decades ago, long before she and Bolin had grown old and grey, though her visible spirit had an ethereal, misty quality to it. For many years Bolin had wanted nothing more than to see Korra one more time, but looking at her now, young yet ghostly, somehow felt hollow.

"It really is," Bolin agreed. "But nobody comes back from the dead just to give an old friend a tea recipe. Do you want to tell him something?"

"Tell Sen to be cautious and quiet. The opposite of me," Korra joked. "If he trusts his instincts and his friends, he'll know when to act."

"Understood." Bolin put his teacup down, suddenly unsatisfied with the taste. "You know, if you want to keep doing your…ghost thing, I think I can get us some tea the way Opal used to make."

Korra looked out at the world. Everything here was so familiar, but so far away. She couldn't feel the ocean breeze or smell the salt on the air. It wasn't her world anymore.

"So, Opal's gone," She said.

"Seven years ago last month," Bolin muttered. "I'm about all that's left of the old gang now."

"I'm sorry, Bolin. I can't stay."

"I understand," Bolin said. "Goodbye, Korra."

"Goodbye, Bolin."

Sen rubbed tears from his eyes curiously. He didn't understand why he would be crying. He looked expectantly at Bolin, who had a very somber look on his face.

"Did it work?"

"You could say that," Bolin said quietly. He looked away from Sen and stared at the horizon in silence for a long time. Sen drank some tea while he waited, suddenly very aware that it would be better with some vanilla. He'd never even tried vanilla before.

"Keep your head down," Bolin finally said. "Move quietly until you're ready to fight. Trust yourself and your friends, and you'll know when it's time."

"What makes you say that?"

"Oh, Korra was notorious for charging into things. Got her into trouble more than a few times. She wants you to be more careful."

"Wait, Korra said that?"

Bolin raised a thick white eyebrow at Sen. It took the young Avatar a minute to realize what was going on. That explained why he had been crying. The vanilla thing was still a mystery to him, though.

"Is that all she said?"

"Yup," Bolin said. He decided that Sen didn't particularly need to know about Opal's secret ingredient. He would keep that last bit of Avatar wisdom to himself. "You'll probably get another chance to talk to her later, so don't worry about that, but for now you're going to have to do things on your own."

Bolin stood up and lead the way back inside. Hanjo was caught up in reading the novelization of _The Legend of Bolin 23: The Tangle in Serpents Pass _and he nearly jumped out of his shoes when Bolin and Sen returned.

"Did it work?"

"Sorta," Sen told him. "She didn't say a lot."

"Because she knows you've got to figure some things out on your own," Bolin said. "Now, I imagine your next step is to find a firebending master…"

"Actually, Bolin, we aren't even very good at Earthbending," Sen admitted. Bolin looked confused.

"Hmm? You haven't mastered it yet? Isn't this kid your teacher?"

"We both grew up in an orphanage," Hanjo added. "I know some stuff I taught to Sen, but we were never really trained."

"Ah well, that's not a problem," Bolin assured them. He flexed his arms, and Sen could hear his joints pop loudly. "I'm not as out of shape as I look, kids. I'll teach you how me and Korra did things!"

"Grandpa, not in the house!"

"I wasn't going to, Su! One time," He mumbled. He took the two young earthbenders outside. Hanjo was barely containing his urge to dance again. Bolin led them to the open clearing of the yard. Bolin had done more than a few earthbending lessons here already, teaching his children, and then his grandchildren, but it had sat empty for quite some time. The sight of hopeful young faces in front of him added to the nostalgia that pervaded the day.

"Any chance we'll learn to lavabend? It's teachable right?"

It was a question Bolin had heard a hundred times, but there was only one answer.

"Not in my experience," Bolin said. His elderly face took on a look of wistful reminiscence. "I spent many years looking for an apprentice, but I never met another."

"Well, even if it's rare," Hanjo continued. "If anyone could learn it, it'd probably be me, right? Avatar's buddy and everything."

"We'll see," Bolin said. "For now, focus on Earthbending. I assume you both know the basics? Floating rocks and all that?"

Sen and Hanjo listed their capabilities to Bolin while Ada joined Bolin's granddaughter on the porch to watch the earthbending practice. She struck up a conversation as the duo demonstrated their skills.

"We haven't seen you in Zaofu in a while, Su," Ada said. She was named after her great-grandmother. "Has Bolin's health been getting worse?"

"He's actually quite healthy for his age," Su explained. "I just think he gets lonely, out here all on his own. He doesn't get much conversation, except when Ko Rin calls him."

"Ko Rin and Bolin know each other?"

"Oh yes," Su said.

Ada didn't think much of it. Bolin had lived in Zaofu for quite a while before moving out here, it wasn't hard to imagine he had met Ko Rin in that time. Still, it was strange to imagine Bolin belonging to Ko Rin's social circle. The spymaster was a little uptight, and Bolin, even in his old age, was a quite a free spirit.

"It seems to me that you two are better than you think," Bolin said, finishing his appraisal of their skills. "What you really need now is confidence, practice, and a few tricks up your sleeve. Here's a little something me and Korra cooked up together, a partner technique we called-"

Bolin was interrupted by the sight of someone leaping over his fence. The intruder waved his left hand frantically at them, holding the right hand limply by his side as he rushed towards. The intruder was stopped suddenly by the ground in front of him transforming into a burning moat of lava. He froze in shock. Bolin was breathing heavily, but the exertion of lavabending hardly seemed to affect him, even in his old age.

The intruder was a familiar face to Sen and the gang. The bandaged sword-wound on his right shoulder made it obvious. They just hadn't been expecting to see him again.

"Suda?"

Whatever urgent goal had been on Suda's mind earlier seemed to have vanished completely. He was staring wide-eyed at Bolin.

"Spirits," he mumbled. Then he started shouting across the lava moat. "You're my hero sir! _Sands of the Siwong _literally changed my life!

Bolin had never met a fan he didn't like, so he let the lava moat dissipate. Suda didn't wait for the stone to cool completely before he hopped frantically across, burning his heels along the way. Paying Sen and Hanjo no mind, Suda spoke only to Bolin.

"Your movers are the highest form of art," Suda began. "The experimental special effects in _Mysteries of Hei Bai_ moved the medium forward by decades."

Bolim smiled happily as he soaked in the compliments. Ada stepped forward, sword drawn, and the sight of her and her blades brought Suda out of his star-struck reverie, making him remember why he was here in the first place.

"Oh yeah! The Avatar's going to die."

"What?"

"I came here to warn you," Suda continued. "My guys are going to sell you out to the Energybender. They'll probably reach a radio sometime today, and Howler won't be far behind. But Bolin's here! He's a master of drama and combat!"

Suda had hunted them down after failing to convince his fellow bandits not to call the Energybender. He had hoped to at least warn them in time to let them get a good lead, but that wasn't a problem anymore. Bolin was one of the greatest people on earth, in both acting and bending. Suda pointed enthusiastically at Bolin with his good arm, but the elderly actor slash global hero only shook his head.

"Now isn't the time to fight. Korra wanted you to keep your head down, and you're going to do that. You three need to get out of here."

"But you were going to train us," Sen objected. "What are we going to do now?"

Bolin looked Suda over, which, considering Suda's massive size, took a long time. The former bandit hung on his idols every word.

"You're an earthbender? A good one?"

"Very good, sir," Suda said, nodding fervently. "I studied all your moves in the movers."

"Then he'll be your master," Bolin said to Sen. "Take him with you when you go."

"What," Ada said angrily. "He's a bandit! We can't trust him."

"You stabbed me," Suda replied, pointing to his bandaged chest and shoulder. The fact that he'd come all this way to warn them should have earned him a few bonus points too, but he was mostly hung up about the getting cut with an electric sword thing.

"Relax," Bolin advised. He took Suda by the shoulder. Suda bit his lip out of excitement and pain. Bolin was touching him directly on his extremely painful wound, but _Bolin was touching him_. "I know exactly what to do."

"Now, young man, you're a big fan?" Suda nodded frantically, and Bolin nodded back, quite pleased. "Then of course you've heard of my twenty-seventh mover?"

"_Rebirth of the Phoenix King_? Fire Lord Izumi had it banned because it was offensive to her families honor. It was never even filmed. Varrick skipped straight to twenty-eight."

"But it was scripted," Bolin told him. "And I read that script. If you swear to me to serve the Avatar, teach him, and protect him with your life, I'll tell you how the mover ended."

Suda's jaw dropped. The "lost mover" was the holy grail of the Bolin fandom. He put his hand on his chest and swore on his life and honor to protect the Avatar. Ada looked incredulously at her allies as Bolin whispered the ending to the lost film in Suda's ears. The bandit choked back tears as Bolin revealed how he had (fictionally) defeated the reborn Phoenix King Ozai.

As soon as Bolin had finished explaining the end of the film, Suda rushed to Sen's side, giving a sharp salute as he began his eternal vigil to protect the Avatar. Bolin had trusted him with this responsibility, as well as the ending to the lost mover, and he would not disappoint his hero.

"Are we seriously going to let this happen," Ada asked.

"I think Suda is the one who should be complaining, really," Hanjo said. He gestured to the heavily bandaged wound Ada had given their new teammate. Ada rolled her eyes as Suda stuck his tongue out at her before snapping back to his vigilant scan of the surroundings, searching for any threat to the Avatar.

"Now, let's get you on the move," Bolin suggested. "Su, dear, do we have any supplies to give the Avatar?"

"Nothing like food or tools," Su said. "But we could just give him one of the boxes from the money room."

"Oh yeah, that would work. Do your own shopping."

Su jogged back to the house and returned with a fairly large box. Hanjo checked inside and his eyes turned as wide as tea saucers when he saw the box was nearly overflowing with money

"We have a lot of those," Su told him. Hanjo clenched the box tightly and dreamed of one day having his own money room.

"Now, hop in your fancy satomobile and be on your way. The sooner you get out of here the better."

"Wait," Sen interrupted. He wasn't just going to leave Bolin behind if the Energybender was coming. "What happens to you?"

"Oh, don't worry about me. I'm nearly a hundred years old and all of my friends are already dead. What can that jerk do to me?"

it was meant to be a joke, but Sen found it profoundly sad. Su coughed. Bolin glared at her.

"I already told you, go to Zaofu if anything like this happens. I'll call you when it all blows over. And it will blow over. I'll be fine."

Sen stared regretfully at Bolin as they packed up and drove away. Something in his heart was deeply hurt to see Bolin's smiling face fade into the distance and finally disappear behind a hill as they drove away. Suda was no less disappointed.

"I didn't get his autograph," Suda moped.

* * *

><p>The Energybender arrived a week later, bringing with him a small army of his bending troops. They stationed themselves outside as he marched boldly into the house, flanked by a truth seer and his second in command.<p>

"I didn't make enough tea for your friends," A voice from the porch called. The Energybender followed it. Bolin was sitting by the table, glaring into the distance and clutching a teacup in his hands. Another one sat waiting on the table. The Energybender pulled up a chair, but the earth grabbed it and pulled it away from him.

"That's Korra's chair," Bolin said, without ever looking at the intruder. The Energybender pulled up a different seat and took a place at the table opposite to Bolin. He grabbed the spare cup and took a drink. It was bland. He could smell a faint whiff of vanilla coming from Bolin's cup.

"You know why I'm here," The Energybender said. "You don't need to be hurt to shelter the memory of a dead friend."

"You can't do anything to hurt me," Bolin said.

Bolin never broke eye contact as the Energybender rose from his chair, placed a hand on Bolin's chest, and tugged on the strings of his soul.

"Tell me where the Avatar went."

Bolin took a sip of tea. Korra was right. Just a pinch of vanilla, and it was exactly like Opal used to make.

"No idea, actually," Bolin said. "I just know he was leaving. Never asked him where."

The Energybender looked to his truth seer. He nodded quietly. He wouldn't come all this way for nothing, though.

"Tell me everything you know about the Avatar," The Energybender commanded.

"Naturally," Bolin said. "Lovely person, really. Hot-headed, but always means well. Very talented bender, too, in all four elements."

"I believe he's talking about Korra," The truth seer said. "But he's still telling the truth, technically."

"He's wasting our time," The Energybender's lieutenant declared. "Keeping the Avatar ahead of us."

"Enough," The Energybender declared. He placed his hand on Bolin's chest and twisted his palm. Bolin felt a shock of pure pain travel through his ribs and down his spine.

"Tell me everything about the current Avatar," Howler commanded. "Or I will tear your soul apart."

Bolin looked his foe in the eyes, staring intently through the pain.

"Seven years ago, I woke up and my wife didn't. You can do nothing."

The Energybender focused on Bolin. He had a grip on the old man's soul, and he could feel every thought that coursed through his mind, and every emotion in his heart. Bolin truly believed that the Energybender couldn't hurt him. Belief was a dangerous thing, for an energybender. A strong spirit could overtake his own, and the Energybender didn't have his allies on hand to empower his own spirit. If it came down to a contest of will, there was a good chance Bolin would be victorious.

"We're wasting too much time," The Energybender said, masking his concession to Bolin's willpower. "There's only so many places the Avatar could have gone."

Bolin returned to his tea as the Energybender returned to his hunt.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Sleep

With Bolin's home well behind them, the group, now including Suda, finally stopped for a day to practice Earthbending. Ada and Suda had been arguing all the time when cramped together in the Satomobile, and Sen was glad to give them some time to be apart. As soon as they had stopped, Ada wandered off to find someplace to be grumpy all on her own. Sen and Hanjo set up for some earthbending lessons. Gun emerged from the ground and casually regarded the earthbenders as he gnawed on a root he'd dug up. He'd been getting a lot bigger lately; he was almost twice the size he'd been when Sen and Hanjo had first met him. Within a few months he'd be a titan, just like his mother.

"I'm mostly going to have to talk you through earthbending, thanks to your female friend over there," Suda began. Ada heard him and made an obscene gesture in his direction.

"You guys really have to get over this eventually," Sen told him. Conflict between his companions was the last thing he wanted. He wasn't quite ready to call Suda or Ada his friends yet, but he knew he didn't want them to fight. With the Energybender on their tail, they had no time for petty arguments.

"I actually don't mind getting cut that much; it's happened before," Suda said. "The fact that we're on the same team now and she refuses to apologize for it is what chafes me."

"She'll get to it eventually," Hanjo assured him. "For now, focus on training us please."

Suda nodded and talked them through some basic drills he'd used in his early days of earthbending. He'd mostly learned from fellow bandits and other rogues; Suda had been born into a bad family. His father, a bender, had skipped town long before Suda ever got to know him, and his mother was hardly a caring individual, so he'd spent his childhood with whatever vagabonds were willing to keep a child around. He'd learned a very rough but highly effective form of earthbending from them, and he'd put his own finesse into it by duplicating Bolin's moves from the Movers he snuck into. By the time he'd joined up with Kuzo and the other bandits, he'd learned metalbending all on his own, and his talent had made him an obvious choice for leadership despite his young age.

In many ways he was a product of his environment, but he'd always thought of himself as a good person. He had to steal just to eat, but he never stole from anyone who really needed the money, and he never hurt anyone who didn't fight back. He kept his conscience mostly clear that way.

The fact that Ada couldn't see that hurt him more than he was letting on. He'd tried explaining all of that to her, but she saw him as just another bandit. He didn't quite know if it was that she was wrong, or that she might be right. Maybe his motivations didn't matter, and neither did his barely-there sense of morality. Maybe he was just a thief and that was all that mattered.

Whatever Ada thought of him, he had a chance to turn it around now. He was going to teach the Avatar and make his hero proud. Truth be told he'd probably have gone with Sen even if Bolin hadn't offered to tell him the ending to the twenty-seventh mover. He was always on the lookout for new and exciting things, and training the Avatar was sure to be the most exciting thing he'd ever done.

Suda was having them launch rocks at targets he'd marked on nearby trees, but Sen was having a very hard time hitting the targets. Those that did make impact seemed more like luck than skill. Hanjo was having much less trouble, and was trying to guide Sen through the process. Suda offered what advice he could, but none of it seemed to help Sen's aim.

Suda tried a different exercise, stacking rocks in a specific formation, and Sen found himself struggling again. His form, control, and motion were all perfect, even better than Hanjo's, but when it came down to actually putting the stone in the right place he fell flat, and Suda couldn't figure out why. He decided to try something that required less precision, to bolster Sen's ego.

"Stop my boulder without lifting your feet off the ground." He called up a large stone and let Hanjo go first. Hanjo went for the clever route; he bent the earth beneath his feet, giving him room to move as he bent the massive stone away. Suda considered that a pass and let Sen take his turn. The Avatar didn't move at all; when the stone approached him he split in half down the middle and let the pieces fall on either side of him. He seemed very satisfied with his demonstration. The lessons Kyo had given him about using his anger to carve stones had come in handy again, and his failure at the earlier exercises had given him plenty of anger to work with.

Suda kept teaching them lessons in brute force, giving them simple, broad tasks for Sen to accomplish. He excelled at digging trenches, exceeded expectations at creating stone traps, and he blew Suda's mind with his ability to create barriers. But the moment Suda sent them back to the target range, Sen faltered again. The taste of success made failure all the more bitter, and Sen tore the target tree out of the ground in frustration. Ada decided it was time to move on.

Back in the satomobile, they finally had a conversation topic other than Ada and Suda's arguments, which Hanjo enjoyed, but Sen was slightly less enthused about.

"Perhaps the small scale isn't Sen's forte," Ada suggested. "He obviously has a natural talent with the bigger tasks. Maybe he's more specialized?"

"It takes a brick to build a fortress," Suda said. It sounded wise, but really he was just quoting a mover. "Mastering the small things will make him even better at the big ones."

"Trying to focus his efforts on something he's not naturally talented at is going to be a lot of trouble," Hanjo added. "Wouldn't it be better to just use what he's already good at?"

"He's got to face the challenges now," Suda said. "What about when he gets to airbending, his opposing element? If he can't handle the challenges of earthbending, how will he succeed there?"

"He's got a point," Ada said. It was the first time the two had agreed since they'd joined up. "If Sen can't handle this, he'll have a worse time with the other elements."

"I can handle this," Sen objected. "There's just something wrong, I don't know what it is."

"I'd question the teaching environment first," Ada said, going back to her old tone.

"Hey," Hanjo shouted, shutting down the argument before it started. "I'm doing the same lesson's and I'm doing fine. Leave Suda out of this."

"Are you implying Sen alone is to blame?"

Hanjo looked at his friend. Sen stared back at him. Hanjo couldn't maintain eye contact.

"Yeah. I guess I am."

Sen turned away and stared out the window. The world outside was a blur to him, and they weren't even driving that fast. They were nearing another city now, and they were starting to see other satomobiles on the road, which affected how fast they could travel.

Occasionally a military vehicle drove by and they all ducked their heads. There was no telling who was on whose side nowadays. With half the parliament showing anti-Avatar sentiment, the UEK military was not a reliable ally in any way. Especially not for Suda, who probably had a few "wanted" posters up in this area.

"We have to decide on some kind of schedule for training," Suda said to his pupils. "Find a way to balance keeping ahead of Howler's forces and getting you two trained."

"We could try just stopping altogether, going deep into the woods or something and hiding out. With any luck, Howler's forces will go right past us."

"I don't like that," Sen said. "Even if they do go past us, who's to say we won't accidentally bump into them again when we start travelling?"

"Sen's right," Suda said. "If they're right behind us we at least know where they are."

"For now, we'll stay the course. Hopefully Bolin will have bought us enough time to outpace the Energybender's troops."

Ada said that, but she knew that Bolin's best efforts could only delay their enemies by a few hours at most. Hopefully it would help reassure Sen, who had been having some rough times lately.

His confidence had faltered somewhat in the past few days. His ineptitude at earthbending and the possibility of Bolin being harmed had put a damper on his spirits. Hanjo said they had managed to avoid causing any major trouble since leaving the orphanage. There had been a close call in a city named Zang, but since they hadn't heard of the Energybender attacking there, they assumed everything had gone alright. Up until Bolin, no one had actively been endangered by Sen being the Avatar.

Sen fully believed that Bolin would be fine; he was one of the world's greatest masters, after all. But the fact that there was a risk, that people could once again be hurt because of his presence, was dragging Sen down. They'd gone through so much without ever having the Energybender put on their tail that he had almost forgotten about the risk. It had been easy to ride around aimlessly with Hanjo and Ada. Now that they actually had an earthbending master with them, the responsibility of being the Avatar was hitting more close to home.

He could probably handle all of this, of course, if he was actually doing well learning earthbending, but his consistent failures were only enhancing his self-doubt. What kind of Avatar couldn't even learn the element he'd been born into?

Traffic came to a dead halt around the border between two provinces. Every province had its own independent government, despite the fact that they were all conjoined into the greater United Earth Kingdom, and each government enforced its borders and laws on an individual basis. Some provinces were very open, others had checkpoints on every road.

Hanjo immediately began piling bags and containers on top of Suda, trying to make him look like a lump of luggage. Suda was a very large person, so it took the lions share of their supplies to completely cover him. The supplies Ada had brought along from Zaofu included fake passports for the three of them, but she had not had time to make one for Suda yet, so he'd have to sneak across the border the old fashioned way. Suda persevered through the indignity of having boxes stacked on his head; he'd endured worse as a bandit. Namely, getting betrayed by all his so-called friends. That still stung.

Ada stopped at the border checkpoint and gladly offered the fake papers to the agent in charge. He looked them over. The documents listed them all as being members of the same family, as far as he knew they were the travelling Togo family, merchants on a mission to get a sale. It helped that Hanjo and Sen looked fairly similar. Anyone who didn't know better might say they were brothers. They had the same brown, fine hair and green eyes, their faces were about the same shape, everything matched up fairly well.

The border guard apparently fell for the resemblance, and completely ignored the conspicuous heap of luggage in the back seat, and they were allowed through.

"You kids be careful on the road," The border guard cautioned. "Strange things have been happening."

"What kind of things?"

"I dunno, I just look at the passports," He sighed. "People getting delayed, no one knows why. Not getting hurt or nothing, just showing up late."

That normally wouldn't be a problem, but they had an enigmatic killer on their tail, so any delay was a very bad thing. Ada sped down the road as soon as they were clear of the checkpoint.

"That sound like Spirit stuff to anyone else," Suda asked, shedding his cocoon of containers. "That sounds like Spirit stuff to me."

"That sounds right," Sen agreed. "Nobody's getting hurt, so it's probably just some wayward spirit with bad timing."

"Well you're the Avatar, so any spirit business is fine with us, right? It's not a problem."

Hanjo rested his feet on the seat in front of him and relaxed. Sen wasn't feeling quite so confident. He hadn't really done anything very spiritual yet. The Avatar state had taken over at Beaker Hall, but that didn't really count. He didn't know how well he'd do in his first real bridge-between-worlds outing. Considering how he was screwing up at earthbending, he doubted he'd do a good job.

"I know how to deal with spirits too," Suda added.

"The Bolin movers aren't an academic source," Ada sniped.

"I have actually talked to spirits, thanks," Suda shot back. "Me and the guys used to run into them now and then back when we lived in the woods."

"Did you ever run into one of the bad ones?"

"Of course we did," Suda said. "We threw rocks at it until it went away."

Somehow Sen did not feel he should make a spiritual role model of Suda. He could tell Ada felt the same way, but, in a distressing turn of events, Hanjo was nodding his head in agreement. Time to shut this line of thought down.

"Nobody's throwing rocks at anything until I talk with it," Sen said. "Whatever's going on, it isn't hurting anything, so we aren't hurting it."

"You might need to repeat that for Ada," Suda said. Sen kept his mouth shut, but he actually agreed. Ada was showing no signs of losing her violent streak, and her arguments with Suda were revealing a temperamental side to her that Sen hadn't seen before. Time had actually made him trust her less, not more.

"That was just dull," Ada said, trying to shut down an argument for once.

"What can I say? I don't trust you around sharp things," Suda said, expertly turning her comeback against her. Now it was on. Ada wasn't going to sit back and let him have the last word. They started at it again. Sen rolled the window down and stuck his head out, hoping that the air rushing by would drown out the sound of the argument. It worked for a while, but then the debate got more heated and their voices got louder.

"You can try and complain all you want, from where I was standing it was justified self defense," Ada said. "Sen and I agreed on that, right? Sen?"

"Leave me out of this," Sen said. He'd had it with their arguing.

"Yeah, looks like he really has your back," Suda said smugly. "Hanjo, what do you think?"

"Don't get him involved either," Sen shouted. Hanjo shook his head, showing he didn't want to be part of this argument. "I swear, I am so tired of this stupid argument!"

Now that he thought about it, he really was tired, in the literal sense. All this arguing would usually get his blood boiling, but right now he just wanted to sleep. With a quiet groan, he rested his eyes and hoped Suda and Ada would argue quietly enough for him to get some sleep. They disappointed, at first, but gradually their arguments grew quieter and quieter.

Sen opened his eyes. Quiet was not a quality he'd easily attribute to those two. He looked over the vehicle. Ada was slouching in her seat, eyes glazed over, while Suda was yawning in the back seat. Hanjo had already fallen completely asleep.

The holly trees outside rustled in the wind, inviting Sen to sleep. He wasn't driving, he thought, what would the harm in taking a nap be? Suda and Ada would keep themselves awake by arguing. Sen slammed his head forward again. He was not that tired, and something else was trying to convince him he was. He slammed his foot down, jolting Suda and Ada to alertness.

"Spirit stuff! Everyone stay awake!"

Suda shook his head, trying to chase off the supernatural sleepiness. It didn't work very well. He tried to shake Hanjo awake, but was unsuccessful. Sen tried to rouse his friend again. If they were dealing with anything unusual, he wanted Hanjo at his side. Hanjo had a knack for solving problems. Unfortunately, repeated attempts to rouse his fellow orphan proved unsuccessful. Whatever was causing this sleep was very powerful indeed.

"Pull over, Ada."

"No, I should keep going," She said, fighting back a yawn. "If I can get us far enough away-"

"If you fall asleep at the wheel we'll crash. Pull over so we can put a stop to this."

Ada nodded lazily and veered them towards the side of the road. Her parking job nearly landed them in a roadside ditch, but they were all alive, so it wasn't that bad. Sen got out of the avatarmobile, fighting off an alien lethargy every step of the way. He had to physically pull Suda and Ada out of the vehicle. They barely stood up, tottering limply on the side of the road.

"What now," Ada questioned quietly. Sen had no idea. He made sure to keep Ada and Suda awake, grilling them for ideas, but they were too tired to produce any suggestions. Sen was on his own. He acted on the first thought that came to mind.

He pointed into the cluster of holly trees by the roadside and told his friends they were going that way. He had a hunch that whatever was causing this sleepiness was in that direction. Nothing really stood out to him as they entered the woods. They all seemed like perfectly ordinary trees to him. Spirits usually glowed, or had weird colors, or something like that. He pressed his entourage forward, always shouting and prodding to keep them from falling asleep as they walked. The strange force causing the sleepiness seemed to be avoiding him, but Ada and Suda were still drifting off.

"Try talking to it," Ada advised. She really did want to help, even if she seemed ready to collapse at a moments notice. She had messed up too many times. She needed to do this one thing right, no matter how tired she was.

"Excuse me, sleep spirit," Sen shouted. "It's me, the Avatar. Please come talk to me."

"Please be quiet," A voice from the roots of the trees said. Sen bent over to look at the branches. A rather drowsy looking spirit was lingering among the roots of the holly tree. It looked like a very large grape with arms and legs. Small dot-like eyes lingered half open as it lazily regarded Sen.

"Are you doing this?"

"No," The spirit squeaked. It let out a tiny yawn. "I come here to nap. Natae's very good at making people nap."

"So Natae is the one making people sleep?"

"You are very pushy, Avatar," The little purple one said. "Yes, Natae is the sleepy spirit. Now shush shush shush."

The tiny grape spirit returned to its nap, ignoring Sen's presence. The Avatar pushed his companions forward, deeper into the holly forest, looking for Natae. After a few minutes of searching, Sen found a holly tree that stood taller than all the others nearby.

"This looks good, right? Spirit's like landmarks like this."

"Very good," Ada mumbled, not even looking at the tree. "Can I go to sleep now?"

"No," Sen said. Ada let out a low, tired groan. "The longer we stay awake, the more attention this Natae thing is going to have to focus on us. He should show up eventually."

"Very smart," A deep, slow voice said. Ada fell over, landing on a bed of dead leaves, and was quite unconscious. Sen barely managed to grab Suda's arm and pull him back up, slapping him on the back to jolt him awake.

"Throw rocks at 'im," Suda mumbled. He hung lazily on Sen's shoulder, barely awake at all. Sen was alone.

"Why making so much trouble," The slow voice said again. It seemed to linger in the air for a second when the speaker was done talking, as if the words themselves were too slow to keep up.

A figure came into focus, draped across a large branch of the holly tree. It looked like a sloth skin filled with water, draped amorphously over every branch, its arm bending in seven different places as it dangled along the path of least resistance. Only the creatures head seemed to respond to anything other than gravity, slowly drifting around to view whatever it found interesting.

"All I do is make nice place to nap," The creature, presumably Natae, continued. "Then Avatar come in with hitting and yelling and…"

Natae paused. Sen waited a moment before coughing for attention.

"Anger," Natae finally continued. "Why do you do this?"

"Me and my friends are going somewhere. We can't afford to sleep."

"Everyone need sleep," Natae said. "What makes Avatar so important that Avatar can't sleep?"

Sen didn't know how to answer. He looked at Suda and Ada, hoping they would wake up long enough to give him the advice he needed. They did no such thing. Hanjo was far behind, still fast asleep. Sen was on his own. He decided to go for the most blunt approach possible.

"We are all going to die," Sen interrupted. "We're being chased by the Energybender. He's said he's going to kill everyone who helps me."

Natae stared blankly for a very long, lingering moment.

"That is so important," The spirit admitted. One of his long, noodle-like arms began a ponderous journey to his chin. "I was wanting to teach lesson about patience and rest because you are fighting so much, but that seems silly now."

"I appreciate you trying to help, but right now I need to move more than I need a lesson," Sen said. "Can you let my friends go now, please?"

Natae blinked. Even blinking took him much longer than it should. The minute action at least seemed to break the hold of sleep on Suda and Ada. Ada began pulling herself out of the pile of leaves and dirt she'd fallen into, and Suda could finally stand upright on his own.

"Very sorry," Natae droned. "I will try to help however I can. But please do not argue any more. You are Avatar, Avatar. Avatar is meant for peace, not fighting."

"I know that," Sen said. "But sometimes there has to be fighting for peace? Is that right?"

"I do not know," Natae admitted. "I am spirit of only sleep."

Sen helped a very disoriented Ada to get her bearings while he thought about Natae. He was a rather curious spirit. Most of them seemed to display a very keen intelligence, but Natae seemed a little…stupid. He didn't think his actions through. Even though he'd wasted their time and let the Energybender catch up with them, it was hard for Sen to blame him for anything.

"Goodbye, Natae. Sorry we couldn't stay to learn a lesson. Maybe someday we'll come back."

"Please no shouting next time," Natae said. Then he faded from sight. Sen guided his friends back the way they came. That had been a strange ordeal from start to finish. Hanjo was waiting in the avatarmobile, confused.

"What just happened?"

"We had an adventure," Sen said. "You slept through it."

* * *

><p>Two of his search parties had stopped reporting in three days ago. The Energybender had no time or patience for this. Every day the Avatar was out of his reach was a day he spent growing stronger, his spirit becoming more capable of challenging the Energybender's own. But here he was, up to his shoulders in holly branches, because he was a leader, and leaders were expected to make up for the failings of their men.<p>

Finding the search parties had been easy enough; wakening them from their slumber had been slightly harder. There was spirit magic at work, and the Energybender had no desire to waste the incredible power of energybending to wake up a few slack-jawed footsoldiers. He pressed into the heart of the holly forest and found his quarry.

"Spirit of the tree," He commanded, staring down the largest tree in the forest. "Release my men."

There was no response. He placed his hand on the tree, feeling the spirit that flowed through it. A spirit lingered here, that was certain. He pressed his power into the flow of energy through the tree, creating a pulse of spiritual force that should draw the spirit out.

"Spirit of the tree," He shouted more forcefully. "I have mastered the art of the Lion Turtle's claws. I demand you answer me."

"Very rude," Natae said. He appeared amidst the branches of the tree, draped lazily as always. "Lesson should be learned. What does-"

Natae's lesson was brought to an abrupt halt as the Energybender's hand closed around the sloth spirit's limp throat. Natae tried to fade away, but the Energybender gripped his very essence, violently trapping him on the material plane.

"Release my men," The Energybender said.

"No…fighting," Natae groaned slowly.

"I have no time for you," The Energybender said dismissively. His power surged into Natae's body, tearing at the bonds that held the spirit together. The wind filled with the sound of screaming as if from a great distance. The howling rose as the Energybender struck out more and more violently at Natae's soul.

"Release my men," he commanded again. The howling reached a crescendo as he pushed Natae to the brink of death.

Natae let out a long, slow groan, and the Energybender could suddenly hear movement in the trees behind him. He released his ethereal grasp on the spirit, and Natae immediately faded from sight. The Energybender marched through the trees back to his vehicle, passing by his disoriented men on the way.

"We are on the hunt. Move."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Four Eyes

When they arrived in the city of Shen's Post, a pitstop on the road to Republic City, Ada dropped them off to make arrangements for lodging while she went to fill up on supplies and fuel. Earthbending lessons were on hold in the middle of the city, so Suda decided to talk about a different topic.

"So, Ada," He began. "What's her deal? You guys are both orphans from the same place. Where'd she come from?"

"She's kind of got a secret society thing going on," Sen explained. "Probably won't want me to go into detail about it without her permission."

"So I'll never know, then. Great."

"Come on, I keep saying she'll get over it eventually. You just need to kick some bad guy butt together and we'll all be friends," Hanjo said. Their only encounter so far had been a sloth spirit, so there had been no real bonding via violence.

"Nobody's kicking any butt unless we have to. Korra said to stay low, and that's what we're going to do."

Sen said that, but he had the feeling the universe wasn't going to cooperate. If they made it to Republic City without at least one major brawl he'd be very surprised. Especially with the Energybender being so close on their tail thanks to Suda's former comrades. Sometimes he held that against Suda, that his men were putting Sen and his friends, even Bolin, in danger, but Suda clearly wasn't involved. He'd even made a desperate attempt to warn them in time for them to get away, despite the fact that Ada had injured him.

"But, well, while we're talking about Ada," Suda began awkwardly. He looked at Sen. "I just want to know what the situation is, you know."

"I just told you," Sen said. He didn't know what Suda was trying to say. Suda crossed his arms and sighed.

"Well, what I want to know is, what's going on between you and Ada," Suda mumbled. "I mean, Sen, it's just you and the one girl. I'm the adult here, I've got to think about this stuff."

Suda had realized not long ago that he was older than everyone here by four years. He was loathe to act as the team dad, but he would probably be forced to. Orphans and teenage spies were not well-acquainted with how the real world worked, and Suda was all too aware of how the world worked. He would probably have to guide the kids through more than a few problems.

"Oh, man, no," Sen said. "She has a boyfriend back home. Dorky looking guy, but they seem to love each other."

Suda sighed in relief. Of all the problems he might have to face, teenage crushes was the one he most wanted to avoid. He knew his way around women, but teenagers in love was the last thing Suda needed to deal with.

"I'm not jealous or anything," Sen said. He could see the stress on Suda's face, and tried to put his mind at ease about any romantic entanglements. "The first time I met her, she made kind of a weird impression. Ada's nice, but I just don't...you get me, right? Not my kind of girl."

Suda nodded. Sen wasn't sure what his kind of girl was, but Ada wasn't it. He had thought about it more than once; after all, he'd almost never talked to anyone, much less girls, back at the orphanage, but no matter how he looked at it, he couldn't see himself being attracted to Ada.

"I think Hanjo's the one you need to worry about," Sen said. "He's been asking about her boyfriend a lot. I think he's jealous."

"Eh, she's not my kind of girl either," Hanjo said jokingly. Suda started to laugh. Sen felt like there was a joke he wasn't getting.

"I should go get us a place to stay," Sen said, excusing himself from the awkward conversation. He found them a decent hotel to hide away at before returning to Suda and Hanjo, and together they travelled to the meeting place Ada had arranged with them earlier. She was already waiting for them there.

"I put in a call to Zaofu," Ada said. Code for she was talking to her boyfriend, but maybe she'd learned something useful anyway. "Su arrived safely and Bolin called in to say he was fine. The Energybender is on our tail, though."

Sen was glad to hear that Bolin and Su were alright. He'd had a feeling that Bolin could handle himself, but it was good to have any lingering fears put to rest. He didn't need anyone getting hurt because of him.

"And how is my favorite accountant doing," Hanjo asked sarcastically. Suda gave him an awkward glance.

"He misses me, but he's surviving," She said flatly, not amused by Hanjo's joking. Better not to encourage him by getting flustered. Sen, still under the impression that Hanjo was speaking out of jealousy, elbowed his friend in the ribs.

"We have a place to stay for the night," Sen said, pointing towards the hotel he had found for them. "Let's just get to it."

"It's barely dinnertime," Hanjo said. "We could look around, maybe find something useful."

"We already have the only thing we need for now," Sen said, pointing to Suda. "We should head for Republic City. We'll either find a firebender there or head for the Fire Nation."

"I thought our plan was to use the Spirit Portals to head for the poles," Hanjo said.

"That was the plan when we started out," Sen said. "Our situations changed. We have the Avatarmobile now, we're moving faster."

"Sen has a point," Ada said. "Using the Spirit Portals to reach the poles is premature, if you haven't learned Fire or Air yet."

"I think we should head for the Fire Nation right away, actually," Suda added. "We're still pretty close to the coast, so we can find a port without wasting time travelling to Republic City."

"We clearly have a lot of options," Hanjo said. "Let's head back to the hotel and talk them over, okay?"

The four of them nodded. It'd be better to talk about this before they headed anywhere else. There were multiple roads leading out of this city, all of them heading for different major destinations. They all headed back to the hotel together, thinking over their plans for future travel. The hotel Sen had chosen was off the main roads, tucked away in a bad part of town, so their rooms were cramped and run down. They managed to scrounge together four chairs that didn't fall apart when you sat on them and sat in a circle. Sen opened the discussion.

"If anywhere is going to be safe for me, it's Republic City. That city wouldn't exist if it weren't for Aang and Korra. The number of supporters I'll have there make it the obvious choice."

"The obvious choice for Energybender spies, as well," Ada countered. "You might have support there, but the Energybender has unknown numbers of forces on his side. We can't risk him catching your trail so soon."

Republic City was just like Zaofu; while they were overwhelmingly supportive of the Avatar, they were also threaded with enemy spies. There was just as much risk as benefit waiting for them in the United Republic.

"Korra's Spirit Portal is still a tempting target," Hanjo said. "Even if the Energybender catches us in Republic City, we'd be able to outmaneuver him in the Spirit World thanks to the Avatar, and when we reached the other Spirit Portals he'd have to split his forces between the North and South to search for us."

"It wouldn't get us any closer to the real target, though," Suda added. "Making Sen a fully realized Avatar is our top priority. Once he's at full strength, he can fight the Energybender and win. The sooner we get him to the Fire Nation, the better."

Sen had an urge to go to Republic City, probably due to it being so familiar to his past lives, but he could see Suda's point. It wouldn't matter where he was if the Energybender caught up to him before he was ready. Advancing his skills as an Avatar should be his first priority, and there'd be more firebending masters to be found in the Fire Nation than in Republic City.

"We still need to go to Republic City one day," Sen added. "But Suda makes a good point. The Fire Nation might be a better place to find a firebending master for me."

"I don't know how I feel about taking a boat ride," Ada said. "If the Energybender were to discover our ships destination somehow, he could have Fire Nation agents waiting for us at the docks. The boat would take weeks while a radio message could be sent in a day."

"Not to mention dealing with Gun on a boat," Hanjo added. Sen nodded. Dealing with Gun was easy on land, when he could just tunnel down and stay out of sight easily, but there wasn't anywhere to tunnel to on a boat.

"We can get our own boat," Suda said. "Bolin gave us enough money to buy a small country, much less a large boat. We'll have room enough for your badgermole and we can land wherever we want whenever we want."

"That's a decent idea," Sen admitted. "But I don't think we can take a ship to the Fire Nation all on our own. Maybe we can hire a private crew instead?"

"Avoiding public transportation is the key element," Ada said. "I have some knowledge of boats, if we need to have our own vehicle. We should head to the nearest port and view our options. There's no guarantee there'll be a ship for sale or a crew for hire."

"But we're all agreed on the boat, right? We're going to the Fire Nation?"

All four nodded. Hanjo had his misgivings about this plan, but he was going to go along with it, seeing as he was obviously in the minority. Ada pulled out her map and they plotted a course to the nearest major port city. They could make it in a days drive if they started early in the morning. For now they had a few hours to rest and prepare. The threat of the Energybender's pursuit would keep them from resting easily, but they could still rest.

Ada pulled out her swords and started digging into the mechanisms. The electric current was a very delicate device, and she hadn't had much time to maintain it lately. Suda saw her swords drawn, made a snide comment about it, and then invited Sen to come outside and do some earthbending practice. Hanjo started to come along, but Suda suggested he stay with Ada instead. Hanjo reluctantly sat down next to her as the two went outside.

"Sen needs to practice without comparing himself to you," Ada said. "A more personal environment might help him address his shortcomings and correct them."

"Oh, you and Suda suddenly understand each other now?"

"Suda's a reasonably clever individual," Ada explained. "I trust his judgment, to an extent."

"I thought you hated him because he was a bandit?"

"It doesn't bother me that much," Ada admitted. "The fact that he hasn't apologized for trying to rob us does rub me the wrong way, though."

Hanjo let out a groan so intense that Ada could feel her chair shake. Not that it took much to shake these awful chairs, but still.

"You two have the _exact same_ problem with each other! Apologies aren't that important! Just suck it up and go say you're sorry for slashing him!"

"Tell him to come apologize to me," Ada retorted. She snapped the batteries in her sword back into place and tested the shock. Worked like it was brand new. She sheathed her swords happily.

"Come on, Ada," Hanjo said. "Me and Sen are sick of the arguing. Just go apologize and end it!"

She didn't want to frustrate Sen, or Hanjo for that matter, but she had her own principles.

"I do what I please," Ada said. "If I apologize, I'll do it when I want to."

Hanjo stomped his foot in frustration, causing a visible crack in the floorboards. He pulled his foot up quickly.

Outside, Suda and Sen were still focusing on Sen's earthbending. Suda had been in this town before, on a less noble mission, so he knew a good alleyway that made a decent escape route, and a decent hiding place for their earthbending practice. They went through a refresher on all the large scale tricks that Sen excelled at, but then they had to go over the smaller, more precise techniques again, and he ran into the same problems. Suda tried to take the Avatars mind off his failures with a little conversation. A topic from earlier deserved some attention.

"So, what's the deal with Hanjo anyway? Why'd you bring him along?"

"Because I did," Sen said. He shot a pebble at the target and groaned in frustration when he missed. "Didn't really think about it, and by the time I did, he was already my friend, so it's not like I could tell him to leave."

"I get being loyal to your friends, but in the long run, what does the guy do? Never heard of a Team Avatar with three of the same element before."

"I figure I'm trendsetting," Sen said. "Korra's team didn't have an airbender. Why can't I have extra earthbenders?"

"You've got a point," Suda admitted. "But, uh, have you noticed anything weird about him?"

"He's weird in a lot of ways," Sen said with a slight smile. "But he's my best friend."

Suda nodded and returned to training. It was clear that Sen only thought of Hanjo as a friend, the only question was what Hanjo was thinking. Suda would deal with that when the time came.

Sen let another stone fly at the target. It bounced off the very edge. Bolstered by the fact that he was getting closer, he tried again, and missed the mark entirely. Suda shook his head.

"I don't get, I just don't," Suda said. "Your technique is flawless, and if it was something spiritual, you wouldn't be so good at the bigger stuff."

"Well find out," Sen said accusingly. "You're supposed to be the master."

"Alright, alright, hold on," Suda said. It was time for a more basic practice. Suda grabbed a chunk of chalk that was hanging around the alleyway and used it to mark three concentric circles on the wall of the building, making a target about the size of his head. With a more definite target than a random tree in mind, Sen would probably be able to focus his mind better. He positioned Sen about twenty feet away and pointed at the target.

"Alright, now I want you to focus on the outer ring first. Ignore the other two."

"There's only two circles," Sen said.

"No, you got ahead of yourself," Suda explained. He pointed at each of the three circles in turn. "This is the one you need to look at. Not this one, or this one."

"There's only two," Sen objected. He walked forward to examine the target more closely, and then shook his head. He tapped each of the three circles with his fingers.

"Huh," Sen said. "That's weird. I guess I was wrong."

A massive grin spread across Suda's face as he realized exactly what was wrong with Sen's earthbending. He took Sen by the shoulder and pushed him out of the alleyway and into the street.

"I know what your problem is," Suda began. "Just follow me and everything will become clear."

"Or you could tell me where we're going beforehand," Sen objected, planting his feet in the dirt. "I'd kind of like that to happen for once."

Hanjo had led him all the way from Beaker Hall to Bolin's house without ever telling Sen where they were headed. Just for once, he would like to know where he was going in advance.

"Come on, just trust me," Suda said as they reached the street. One look told him that trusting himself was a bad idea.

A caravan of unmarked military transports pulled into town. Shrouded figures could be seen through the windows of the armored convoy. It wasn't hard to guess who they were. Sen had his friends had travelled too slowly. The Energybender had caught up with them.

"We're leaving now," Sen commanded. Suda led the way back to the hotel. Hanjo and Ada were halfway through packing the supplies when they arrived. They blitzed through the rest of the supplies and rushed downstairs as quickly as they could. This was all much too sudden. They'd been talking about stupid romance crap not an hour ago. If he'd known all of this was going to happen, Suda would have never wasted the time. He regretted most of the days decisions as he barreled down the stairs.

Having taken the lead already, Ada reached the bottom of the stairwell first, and her suddenly extended arm brought the rest of the parade to a screeching halt. There were already troops in the lobby, interrogating the clerk at the desk. Ada stopped the group to listen to what their enemies had to say. There was a chance they could avoid detection, if they had some intelligence.

"This city is officially under lockdown," The Energybender's minion declared. "People like you have nothing to fear, of course, unless you're sheltering the Avatar."

The cowed clerk listened to everything the soldier said. The troops were wearing full face masks, but other than that they looked more like monks than soldiers. Their robes were loose fitting, and their cut was similar to the style used by ancient airbending monks. The color scheme clearly denoted bending talents; red, blue, green and yellow for each element. Oddly, there didn't seem to be a color for nonbenders.

"Station a soldier at every door to check people going in and out. The rest of you, go join the roadblocks."

Ada dove out of cover. If they were putting up checkpoints, there'd be no hope of getting out of town stealthily. Their only hope was to make a blitz for the highway and hope they beat the Energybender's forces. The rest of the team followed her into action and took out the Energybender's troops as quickly as they could. The element of surprise made the fight one-sided, but that trick would only work once.

They tore out the door of the hotel, dodging a new volley of attacks as they ran. Sen only stopped to slam his foot on the ground once, summoning Gun. They'd need everything at their disposal to make it out in one piece.

As they started up the satomobile and raced it to the edge of town, Gun guarded their perimeter. Diving in and out of the earth like a dolphin breaching the water, Gun tunneled circles around the vehicle, coming out of the ground to bite and claw attackers or send up walls of earth to block pursuing vehicles. Suda cheered on the badgermole as Gun's frantic attacks took them safely to the edge of the city.

Looking ahead, Ada could see the road open and inviting ahead of them. There were a small number of Howler's forces ahead; two squads of four benders each, but they didn't have any kind of roadblock set up. It almost looked like they were going to make it, but Ada knew nothing was ever certain.

Sure enough, the metalbenders among Howler's forces tore apart their own vehicles, rearranging the components into a metal barricade that spanned the width of the street. Suda tried to raise a ramp out of the earth to get them over it, but the opposing earthbenders tore it right down.

Ada brought the vehicle to a screeching halt just short of the line of troops. Sen and Suda dove out of the back seat, combining efforts with Gun to raise up a massive wall behind them, while Ada and Hanjo rushed forward to take out the enemy metalbenders.

"Suda," Ada shouted over her shoulder. "When I signal, tear down this wall!"

Suda shouted back something unintelligible just to let Ada know he'd heard her. He could feel enemy earthbenders tearing at the other side of the wall. Two benders and a badgermole weren't a match for the Energybenders collection of troops. The wall would be coming down eventually.

Whether the wall was up or not soon turned out to be irrelevant. With a surge of rushing air, enemy airbenders sent themselves and other troops airborne, vaulting over the wall. Their landing was a bit awkward, giving Sen and Suda time to launch a very effective opening attack, but that meant dropping the wall. The rest of the soldiers joined in to attack. There were two dozen of them already, and there'd likely be reinforcements on the way.

The masked troops were few in number, but they were all talented benders using some surprisingly advanced techniques, and Suda didn't have much power on his side. His right hand was still nearly useless thanks to his wound. He did what he could, but the pain made it too hard to focus on earthbending. Sen was doing his best, sending massive boulders and rock walls sailing at the enemy, but his attacks were slow and ponderous, easy to dodge. This was exactly the time that the high speed, precise style of bending he'd been failing at would come in handy. Hopefully Suda's hunch would prove correct. He'd been interrupted earlier, before he could get what he needed to fix Sen's problems.

"Hold them for five seconds," Suda said. "Trust me."

Sen grunted in the affirmative, and Suda broke off from his partner. He'd seen a very promising general store off to the side of the street that should have just what he needed. Scrambling through the store, he found what he was looking for, grabbed a pair at random and dashed back to Sen's side before the troops overwhelmed him. With a brief warning to Sen, he slammed a pair of glasses onto the Avatar's face.

Sen stopped for a second, as everything in his world quite literally came into focus.

When the brief shock of suddenly seeing the world as it really was for the first time in his life was over, Sen launched a new salvo of attacks at the enemy. He could suddenly see them all in detail; the whole world had come into focus all at once, including his enemies. Tearing small stones out of the earth, he called his targets as he sent the earth flying. Suddenly it all made sense. Everything had come into focus. All the times he'd had trouble reading, or seeing things in the distance, or bending at small targets, they all suddenly made sense. It wasn't his fault at all; he'd needed glasses the whole time and never known!

Sen bent over and slammed the palms of his hand into the ground. Massive cracks tore open the concrete street and dove outwards at the energybenders forces. The first wave of troops was swallowed up by the collapsing rock, and the rest were forced backwards by the rapidly advancing chasm. Gun gave a surprisingly loud roar and churned the earth along with his master, sending the wave of earthen devastation roaring down the street.

Ada shouted for Suda. She and Hanjo had disabled the metalbenders in the energybenders group, since they had the courtesy to label themselves with green robes, but they still needed to get the roadblock out of the way, and only Suda could do that. Hanjo and Ada kept the remaining benders at bay while Suda went for the roadblock, leaving an ecstatic Sen to his massacre of the enemy forces. The crumbling stones ahead of him kept the bulk of the forces at bay, but reinforcements were starting to come from the side roads and rooftops, and more troops were approaching every minute. Suda didn't have much time. He started ripping apart the barricade as best as he could.

With the street ripped to shreds, the Energybender's troops were forced to make their approach through narrow side alleys. The chokepoints suited Sen just fine. He removed the platinum spheres from his belt pouch and used his newfound accuracy to pelt the enemies as soon as they came into sight. He could occasionally hear bones crack as he sent the metal coated stones flying into limbs and ribs. His defense wasn't perfect, but when combined with the rampage of an irate badgermole, very few soldiers made it onto the street.

Ada was having trouble dueling with the non-metalbenders among Howler's forces. Nonbenders and earthbenders, even metalbenders, had been plentiful sparring partners in Zaofu, but fire and waterbenders were rarer, and airbenders were almost unheard of. The new techniques and capabilities were throwing off her combat routine. Fire was less forceful, but it traveled much faster, testing her reflexes. Water was flexible, able to change directions multiple times in an attack, testing her agility. Air was the hardest of all, being nearly invisible from the wrong angle, pushing her reflexes to their limits. She was fully aware that one wrong step could mean the end of her life.

So she didn't make a wrong step. She stayed light on her feet, rolling to the side as fire roared past her, then diving forward to strike the firebender with a shocking slash to the ribs. Water twisted and turned, one, two, three times and Ada turned faster, closing in on the waterbender before she could change her course a fourth time. With blade still in hand, she watched for the slightest shift in the dust surrounding them. In the corner of her eye, she saw a pebble move, and she leapt forward. The air behind her surged outwards in a burst just in time to add momentum to her jump, propelling her even faster towards her opponent. She tried her best to remember that this was life or death, not an enjoyable excursion, but a smile found its way to her face eventually. She couldn't help herself; she lived for combat.

Hanjo was having a slightly less artistic time with his opponents. His technique was to use gradually larger rocks to hit them. The firebender got taken out by a medium sized rock, the waterbender got hit with a large rock, and now Hanjo was chucking really big rocks at the airbender. They yellow clad soldier leapt around the buildings, using airbending to propel himself round the rubble, evading progressively larger and larger stones, until Hanjo had used the biggest stone he could possibly move.

"I'm going to get you with the biggest rock of all," Hanjo said confidently. The airbender laughed. Hanjo sent another stone flying, and the airbender prepared to leap. Just before the bender made his final jump, Hanjo twisted the angle of the stone he was propelling himself off of, facing it towards the ground. With a rush of air, the airbender sent himself rocketing into the ground, colliding headfirst with the soil.

"It's the earth," Hanjo said to the unconscious airbender. "The earth is the biggest rock."

With the two squads near the barricade taken care of, Suda could finally focus his full attention on taking down the roadblock. With a loud scream of exertion, Suda stopped dismantling the barricade piece by piece and started ripping the metal in two, filling the air with a shrieking sound as the metal sheets tore asunder.

"Hanjo! The gas canister!"

Hanjo whipped the small, rock-covered container out of his belt and tossed it to Ada. He'd been waiting for a chance to use that toy ever since they'd taken it from the Zaofu armory; he only wished it were under better circumstances. Hanjo covered Ada with his earthbending while she loaded the canister. By the time she was done, Suda had nearly torn the barricade down. Ada told Hanjo to start the car and get it ready to drive, while she passed the gas canister to Sen.

"When Suda gives us the signal, start it, bend it in an arc behind us and get in the car."

Suda gave the signal almost as soon as she was done talking. She made a dive for the car while Sen started the gas device, then earthbent the rock surrounding the device to send it soaring through the enemy troops. It left a cloud of greenish-grey gas behind it, enveloping their opponents in the fog. The enemy airbenders cleared the cloud soon enough, but something about it seemed to linger. Energybender troops were clawing at their masks. Sen didn't spare their distress a thought. He dove into the satomobile and slammed the door shut as Hanjo sent them barreling forward, far away from the enemy troops.

Sen felt that had gone rather well, but it wasn't the time to celebrate quite yet. Ada was fiddling with the radio for some reason.

"Now is not the time for music," Hanjo desperately tried to joke. He needed something to take his mind off their mortal danger, and good old humor seemed like the way to go.

"I'm hoping the Energybender is using an unsecured frequency," Ada hastily explained. She focused in on some signal in the static.

"-Afraid there's no chance of vehicular pursuit," a strange voice said. "They tore the main road up before they left. We'll need time to move our vehicles into position. They'll have a significant lead by then."

"Move as quickly as possible," A chilling voice commanded. The radio's sound was unclear, but Sen was sure he'd remember it. It had to be the Energybender's voice. "Do you have any actual progress to report?"

"We have a visual of the Avatar, sir," the trooper said. He then proceeded to describe Sen in detail, right down to the fact that he was now wearing glasses.

"Then we have our target. Did you overhear his name?"

"No sir."

The Energybender paused. Sen was happy that his name was still somehow being kept secret. It made him feel safer, in a way. The Energybender knew his path and his face now, but did not know his name.

"I have been too lenient with failure of late. Show this city the price of defying me."

Sen had time for a horrified gasp before the first building began to fall. He twisted in his seat to watch from afar as Energybender troops tore apart foundations and burned buildings, dismantling an entire city before his eyes. Sen let out a low, mournful moan. His allies averted their eyes from the destruction. Ada shut the radio off.

Sen covered his face with his hands. He'd avoided this for so long. Zang had been kept safe, Bolin had been kept safe, but this town, Shen's Post, had barely even sheltered the Avatar for a day, and the punishment was absolute destruction. He could hear the sound of collapsing stone from here, and he felt like if he focused, if he listened close enough, he could hear the screams of innocent people as their homes were torn apart.

"Sen. Don't let him get to you."

Sen briefly removed himself from his mournful reverie to listen to Hanjo speak. Hanjo was staring intently, if somewhat blankly, forward, trying to keep grief from showing on his face. He winced slightly when he heard the loud crash of rubble in the distance.

"This isn't your fault. Don't ever think it is."

It was hard not to. It was hard knowing that every move he made brought danger to someone or something else. How could he not feel responsible for what was happening to Shen's Post at this very moment, when it was all caused by him running away, and he was still running? Sen wanted nothing more than to turn around and stop the destruction, but some part of him knew that wasn't the answer. Today the best thing he could do was keep running.


End file.
